Pratik Gandhi, who’s been comfortably balancing films, theatre and OTT projects in 2022, says he doesn’t “feel the pressure” and “doesn’t mind living out of suitcases. ” The actor, who’s made his mark on OTT, wants to do more regional cinema. Excerpts from a chat:

It’s true Scam 1992 changed everything for me and took me to a different phase in my life, but I don’t know why people are touting this film as my ‘return’. I’d like to say, I ‘never left’ the Gujarati industry. It’s true that my mainstream Hindi films and web series commitments hardly leave me time for anything else. Besides doing commercial films, I would like to do interesting Gujarati projects that give me ample scope to perform. I am open to doing other regional cinema too, but there’s a certain degree of comfort in performing in my mother tongue that helps me perform better.

I do want to be part of other regional film industries. In fact, with the look I donned for Scam, I had even tried approaching many south Indian makers for work in their projects, but that didn’t work out. Now that regional cinema is creating some out-of-the-box content both for OTT and the big screen, there’s enough work for talented actors. I am being picky because I want to be part of challenging projects. As an actor, I have to constantly raise the bar for myself and give the audience something new every time.

I have waited for this hectic phase for more than a decade and finally when I am getting to live it, I have no complaints at all. I am lucky to have got a chance to work with great filmmakers, power house performers and mind-blowing concepts – something that every actor wants to cherish. I’d say, 2022 has been a very productive year for me, I did some good films as well as OTT projects. I don’t look at the fees I am being offered for a project, for me the script should be exciting to play the character.