Exclusive/ Pankaj Tripathi's 10-Day Battle Of Decision For Main Atal Hoon

A brief glance at Pankaj Tripathi's steadily growing filmography reveals a vast array of projects across genres. It won't be wrong to say that the actor has never shied away from delving into the complexities of any character he has portrayed onscreen. However, despite Ravi Jadhav's Main Atal Hoon arguably being a milestone role in his career, the actor revealed he was immensely conflicted over taking it up when it was offered to him. The film is a biopic based on the life of the former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Pankaj's apprehension over playing Atal Bihari Vajpayee in biopic

In a conversation with Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami on Nation Wants To Know, Pankaj Tripathi shed light on his process for approaching a role and why the offer to star as the former Prime Minister of India left him in a dilemma. While many would assume that the offer would have elicited an immediate 'yes', that was not the case for Tripathi.

He shared, "When this film was offered to me, I thought about it for ten days straight primarily because I was scared about doing justice to the role. I did not want to do mimicry or imitate; and I did not want a caricature-ish presentation of the character." Pankaj disclosed that for the first time in years he approached his acting guru to understand how he should approach the role. And it was only after guidance from his mentor, Pankaj said, that he finally decided to take up the biopic.

Pankaj recalls his acting guru's advice for Main Atal Hoon  

Sharing that he is aware the audience will draw comparisons with how Atalji, Pankaj revealed the one advice his acting guru gave him before he started prepped for the role. He said, "I went to my teacher; he told me that you don’t have to mimic Atal Bihari Vajpayee; you just have to behave like him. Catch his mannerism which is external. Don’t adopt the other qualities." "That's when my confusion vanished.” Pankaj concluded.

Main Atal Hoon is slated for a theatrical release on January 19.