On Saturday, a tweet that said, senior actor Samir Khakhar, famous for playing Khopdi in the Doordarshan serial Nukkad, is looking for work, came to the attention of many in the entertainment industry including director Sudhir Mishra and actor Gulshan Devaiah.

Ask Khakhar about his career and he replies, “Everyone looks for work. We want some activity to be engaged. I never got frustrated if I didn’t get the work I wanted. I am an introvert and can’t sell myself for work. People who know me, call me and give me roles.”

The actor admits that Nukkad made his career and recalls working with the trio — directors Aziz Mirza, Kundan Shah, and Saeed Mirza. “I have been doing theatre since a young age, and then came Nukkad. I was told that my role, Khopdi, a drunk was supposed to be for three to four episodes but after my performance and the reception to the role, they decided to flesh out my character and rest is history. I liked that the role was not one-dimensional. A lot of effort went into the role of Khopdi. But later, people just wanted to typecast me as drunk in projects. I tried to choose roles which were different as I didn’t feel very happy to be playing only a drunk in films and serials. I knew I could act. But image ke pinjare se aap bahar nahin aa sakte. You can’t break an image easily. A number of actors have been stuck in their image,” says Khakhar, known for films such as Pushpak (1987) and Parinda (1989), TV show Circus (1989).

Going forward, he is looking for sensible roles and not to play just another drunk in a project. He has recently shot for a film Saksham, and a web series Sunflower.