Pankaj Tripathi is an established and celebrated actor today, but that was not the case during the initial years of his career. He had to struggle to make a place in the industry. “There was a time when I survived solely on my wife’s salary and I see absolutely no harm in doing so. My wife and daughter have impacted my life in the best way possible,” says the actor, known for his sensitive and subtle performances in films such as Nil Battey Sannata (2016), Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017), Newton (2017), and Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020).

Tripathi has often talked about his wife and daughter, both being his pillars of strength. His wife, too, has gone on to talk about how he’s a great father and an equally caring and encouraging husband. Coming from a simple background, the Ludo (2020) actor has often shed light upon several important aspects of our society and this time, being a feminist himself, he has expressed his views on the importance of teaching feminism to boys from a young age.

“I feel that parents put all their energies into grooming and teaching their daughters how to behave themselves but when it comes to boys, it’s not given the same importance as it needs. In today’s education curriculum, I think the inclusion of feminism is a must for all young boys. If this is done, we won’t have to “save” our daughters any more,” he says.

In a country where gender-based crimes have been rampant for a very long time, this deep-rooted problem is said to be a result of social conditioning. Tripathi feels that “feminism, which talks of equal rights and opportunities for men and women, is a concept that should be instilled in boys just as strongly as girls”. “Boys need to learn right from the beginning that no gender is ever superior or inferior. Respecting the other genders as well as empowering each other should be taught early on, not just to girls but to young boys as well. To see the existence of such a large gender disparity in our country needs immediate attention and change,” he says.