No Religion Is So Vulnerable To Get Easily Offended: Pratik Gandhi
Pratik Gandhi talks about life after the success of ‘Scam 1992’.
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Pratik Gandhi is all set to return with Mohan's Masala, a play the actor has been performing for over five years now. NCPA is reopening for its audience on 3 February. Pratik will be seen delivering a monologue for which he was also included in Limca Book of Records.
The Quint caught up with the actor to talk about returning to theatre and his life after the success of Scam 1992.
You’re a household name now. Everyone’s watched ‘Scam’ now. How has life changed post ‘Scam’?
Life has changed a lot. The way people look at me changed. The way they approach me as an actor has changed. So, I guess their perception of me has changed completely and I don’t think I have changed at all. But now I guess they are more confident to mount a project with me. So, I am expecting interesting characters to come my way and I am looking forward to working with experienced directors from who I can learn.
Has anything interesting come your way and will you be picky with what you choose, or will you do it because you’ll get the experience of working with a director or a certain actor?
So, initially after ‘Scam’ a lot of people told me, with a lot of affection and care for me, that now your next move will decide your career path, you have to be extremely careful with what you do next. Initially, for a few days, even I thought that I should be careful but then I thought what’s the process of selection? There’s no thumb rule. Nobody can tell me what to do and what not to do? Because I think differently and the way I think no one can. So then I realized that my thought process or my selection is going to be the same and I’ll go with my gut feeling if I like the script and if it’s challenging me enough to create that character.
What was that one ‘Oh my god’ moment you had when some director or actor texted you or reached out to you? Because I was watching these interviews and Shabana Azmi said that you were the best performance she saw in 2020.
First call that I got from was Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi. They took my number from Hansal sir and they called me. And I could not believe that I had just got a call from them. The way they spoke to me and the way they encouraged me appreciated me, it fuelled me up. Shabana ji said that after ages she was seeing a man on the screen so good. She said that you are here to stay and I am glad that you did something like this. Javed sir told me that after Amitabh Bachchan I am seeing this kind of performance after years. Now that’s such a big compliment. Apart from them, Boney Kapoor also called me. Ranbir Kapoor texted me. It was such a warm welcome that I got into the mainstream.
You have attempted ‘Mohan’s Masala’ earlier too on stage. Was there any difference in performing post the lockdown?
I think I am performing this play almost after 10 months and this play I have been performing since 2015-16. I started reading the script again. I rehearsed like I was performing for the first time; I had the same butterflies in my stomach. I actually started recollecting my initial rehearsal days and all.
We’ve seen a lot of web series release and lately, we have seen a lot of discussion around them as well. ‘Tandav’ saw itself embroiled in a controversy where Mohammed Zeeshan wrote a petition saying why are actors being targeted? The Supreme Court said that you are an actor, you have signed the contract, you knew what it was going to be. You can’t hurt sentiments. Do you think it’s limiting artistic freedom?
It’s a very tricky space because if this is the sentence then SC or the authorities should read all the scripts and then pass the script and then we should go on the floor. It’s very difficult for me to gauge what might offend someone. We are such a diversified country that something or the other can offend anyone. If I have a dialogue in the show: “Hey fatty come here.” Now that’s the character, then anyone can file an FIR saying I am body shaming. I read the script, I should have said that I won’t say this. But if that’s the character, how do I portray it? I think the actor’s job is to be true to the character and add value to the script. Then in that case all the actors who perform rape scenes should be jailed too. My only question is how do I understand that what’s going to offend whom. Then you shouldn’t have elephant and ant jokes also. Why are you making elephants look dumb and the ant is smart? Who told you elephants are dumb? Everything can offend then? For my religion, I would say that I love my religion and no religion is so small or so vulnerable that by saying one or two lines it gets offended. Religion is above this. Its’ a story, there are villains and heroes. Then all those films showing police as the villain should be banned. If politicians have been portrayed as villains, they should be jailed too.