After a stellar year in 2020 that saw him shine bright in Ludo, Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, Mirzapur 2 and Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors, Pankaj Tripathi has started 2021 on the front foot with Kaagaz. Even as the Satish Kaushik-directed venture opened to a mixed response, the actor believes the movie holds significance as it challenges the conventional idea of a leading man in the Hindi film industry.

Ecstatic to take centre-stage in the narrative based on the real-life story of Lal Bihari, a farmer who was declared dead on paper, Tripathi says, “I was never thought of as hero material. I am an actor, and am considered a good one at that. But the film’s idea is redefining heroism in Hindi movies. This is a story of an underdog who fights the system.”  

The actor observes how the evolving idea of a hero, and the existing star system have beautifully converged in Kaagaz — the project, after all, is backed by superstar Salman Khan. “I am glad Satish sir and Salman sir thought of giving me the chance to shoulder a film. It’s easy to pigeon-hole us into character parts, but they thought me worthy of pulling off the project single-handedly. That is a game-changing move. I hope this movie gives more producers the faith to follow suit,” he says.