It took one phrase, “father-daughter confrontation”, from the producer to sow the seeds of Kadak Singh in Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s mind. From there, he developed the crime thriller that stars Pankaj Tripathi and Sanjana Sanghi. After the thought-provoking Pink (2016), this is the director’s third Hindi feature film. In Bollywood, where filmmakers are in a hurry to announce their next as soon as their current project releases, Chowdhury patiently waits for a film to take shape.

His reason is simple—a good story requires time. “I used to wait for my female school friends. They’d never come, but I still loved waiting. Similarly, I waited for 42 years [before] I made my first Hindi film. My wife, my friend and I put money in, and we made it. After that, I got offers every day, but the next film I made was after three years. I don’t want to rush. You need three years to write a script, to understand the characters and fall in love with them. Your art is important, not you,” says the National Award-winning director.

It’s not just his characters, but also his actors that Chowdhury seems to be in love with. He is all praise for Tripathi, whose character is battling retrograde amnesia while trying to piece together the events of the past, in the ZEE5 thriller.

“It’s such a difficult role. But Pankaj is like water; he made it so easy. Complicated things can be easily made. To make a simple statement is the toughest.”

The director is equally happy that he could rope in two actors he wanted to work with for long—Parvathy Thiruvothu and Bangladeshi actor Jaya Ahsan.

“I had told Parvathy almost six months ago, sitting in a Bandra café, that we have to do something together. On the other hand, after watching a Bengali film of Jaya, I had written to her that we had to make a Bengali film. The stars aligned in a way that we ended up doing a Hindi film.”

Pankaj Tripathi’s upcoming film, Kadak Singh, will see him in a different avatar and he is confident that people will like it. The actor says, “Audiences have always appreciated my experiments.”

With this film, he has tried to “break free form my image” as makers expect him to crack a joke or make a sarcastic comment. “My character in Kadak Singh is that of a serious man who hardly smiles in most parts of the film, which was challenging. While shooting, the artiste in me would slip [and I would] want to crack a joke. I trained myself to not let that trademark style come out,” the 47-year-old shares.

The OMG 2 actor rues that there aren’t a lot of scripts that can knock his socks off. So when he was offered this film, he jumped at it: “Koi aise scripts lekar aayega toh karenge na! Experimental films are offered to me, but there are hardly any that shake me to the core and convince me to do it. But Kadak Singh had everything an actor wants and the screenplay was fantastic.”

Ask if it bothers him that the Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury directorial, which releases on Zee5 won’t get a theatrical release and Tripathi states, “OTT is what made me popular and I feel its reach is greater than that of theatres. Log achcha content kahin se bhi dhoond lete hain.”

The Mirzapur actor, who is all for experimenting with his roles, did face “misfires” a few years ago. “Jo bhi misfires hue, I knew from day one that they (the projects) won’t work. So, mere selection mein kabhi misfire nahin hua hai,” says Tripathi, adding that there were times when he wasn’t even given a script. “I was told about my scenes and part in the film and that’s all. Mujhe zaroorat thi us waqt kaam karne ki, paison ki... toh jaante boojhte bhi [that it won’t work] maine kar liya. But ab aisa nahin hota,” the actor signs off.

Mahesh Ramanathan, producer and CEO, HT Content Studio, says, “I am proud to have collaborated with Pankaj Tripathi, who has raised the bar yet again. He is set to delight and multiply his galloping pan-India fan base. Our national motto is Satyameva Jayate and we couldn’t have chosen anyone better to inspire people to be on the right side of truth, irrespective of the challenges. Aniruddha’s direction and a standout performances by a dream cast need special mention.”

Pankaj Tripathi got in a year what many artistes spend their entire career wishing for—critical acclaim and commercial success at the same time. His August release, OMG 2, emerged a hit, and soon after, he won the National Award for his supporting act in Mimi (2021). Have these accomplishments altered his approach towards his career? “You’re talking about films, and here I’m thinking of doing a play next year,” Tripathi says with endearing simplicity, as we sit down to chat about his next, Kadak Singh.

While one would expect him to sign big films after the success of OMG 2 and Fukrey 3, the actor is staying true to his mantra of work-life balance. “I have done a lot of work on screen. So, I want to act on stage now. I don’t take load; we can complicate or simplify our life as we want. When I am not acting, I’m growing plants, vegetables and fruits. But I talk less about my farming background, otherwise, people will make reels on it and say, ‘See, a farmer’s son became an actor,’” he laughs.

That said, the actor acknowledges that the box-office successes have brought him more opportunities. So much so that his date diary is chock-a-block. “I am getting a lot of offers since the success of OMG 2. A few days ago, when I told a producer that I don’t have dates, he offered me more money. I asked him, ‘How will more money ensure dates? I won’t leave the project that I am doing.’”

Novel stories, not money, lure Tripathi. He says Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s directorial venture Kadak Singh boasted a gripping story. More importantly, the ZEE5 thriller gave him a chance to shed his on-screen image of a funny, small-town man.

“I get more or less [similar] types of scripts. Either they are Mirzapur or Criminal Justice type, or the character will be a middle-aged man who is someone’s father and is humorous. Here, none of those [tropes] was present. Also, I was so spoilt doing comedy that I’d need humour even in a serious scene.  Many directors tell me, ‘Do your trademark [humour].’ But here, I didn’t use my best-selling item. I realised this was a chance to experiment.”

We can’t end our conversation without talking about the National Award win, his second after Newton (2017). Its mention brings a smile on the actor’s face, making evident its significance in his life. “It’s not sponsored by a company. There is no brand logo on it, unlike other awards. It has Ashoka Chakra on it. It’s a national honour.”

Ahead of the release of Kadak Singh, Sanjana Sanghi is dominated by one emotion—relief. The actor admits that initially, the prospect of starring in the Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury film was daunting. It didn’t help that when the director narrated the thriller to her over a Zoom call, she was left more confused than convinced.

“He was editing Lost, and was distracted. Kadak Singh can be tricky to understand in a narration. But when I read it, it spoke to me,” smiles Sanghi. Couple that with Chowdhury’s unwavering faith in her, and she was ready to jump into the project.

“At this stage of my career, it feels reassuring when a filmmaker of Tony da’s [Chowdhury] calibre wants me, without asking me to audition or to read for him. I’m glad I did the film, otherwise I would have regretted it for the rest of my life.”

The ZEE5 thriller follows Pankaj Tripathi’s Kadak Singh, a joint director at the department of financial crimes, who is suffering from retrograde amnesia and is trying to piece together the events that led to this predicament. Sanghi, who plays his daughter, says the depiction of their bond touched her heart.

“I desperately wanted to do [the film] because I knew Tony da would bring [more] layers to the dynamic.”

The director ensured that Tripathi and Sanghi undertook workshops that would enhance their father-daughter bond on screen. She has fond memories of them. “I will always remember Pankaj sir’s Madh Island house where I used to eat momos and take a nap in his daughter’s room. Tony da would join us sometimes, we’d listen to classical music and not even talk about the film. Our workshops [focused] on discovering each other. We spoke about so many things that weren’t even relevant to our characters. In the middle of all that, we found our film.”

As Goa gears up to host the 54th edition of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) starting November 20, there’s a lot in store for movie buffs to look forward to. While the film screenings, masterclass and in-conversation sessions with the members of the film fraternity are the high point of the 9-day film extravaganza, the star presence at IFFI is going to be on an all-time high this year. 

Starting from Salman Khan who will be attending the gala premiere of his production Farrey that marks the debut of his niece Alizeh Agnihotri, Sara Ali Khan and Karan Johar bringing their film Ae Watan Mere Watan at the festival, to Pankaj Tripathi at the screening of his film Kadak Singh, IFFI has quite a glitzy line-up of celebs present for their respective film premieres. Others names that are going to be present for their film premiers include actors Aditi Rao Hydari, Sanjana Sanghi, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Urvashi Rautela, Prachi Desai, Parvathy Thiruvothu and Akshay Oberoi.

Not just the red carpet premiers, the masterclass and in-conversation sessions, too, are going to be driven by star power and some extremely meaningful conversations on a variety of subjects pertaining to film business. Some of the speakers would include Sunny Deol, Vidya Balan, Rani Mukerji, Manoj Bajpayee, Boney Kapoor, Dolly Ahluwalia and the cast of web show The Railway Men - actors R Madhavan, Babil Khan, Kay Kay Menon and Divyenndu Sharma, alongside filmmaker Rahul Rawail, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, directors Kartiki Gonsalves, Jasmeet K. Reen and Raj & DK, producers Guneet Monga and Apoorva Bakshi and sound designer Resul Pookutty.

Besides members from the Hindi film industry, several top names from the South film industries are also going to make their presence felt at the film festival. Vijay Sethupathi will be in conversation with actor Khushbu Sunder, while Naga Chaitanya will be in attendance for the gala premier of his project Dhootha.

Food, family and her furry pals – that’s what Sanjana Sanghi’s visits to Delhi is all about. During her recent visit to the capital, the actress spoke to us about her favourite hangout spots here, why her heart belongs to the city and the films she has lined up.

Sanjana says that she keeps looking for opportunities to come to Delhi. “Though I stay in Mumbai for work, my heart lies in Delhi. I try coming to Delhi an evening before I have an event or take a late flight the next day so that I can have dinner with friends and family and see my nana. I am definitely greedy when it comes to spending time in Delhi,” says the Dil Bechara actress.

Talk about Delhi food, and Sanjana says that her favourite memories from her school and college days are all about food. “During my recent visit to the capital, I was at Lodhi Road, which used to be my regular hangout spot when I was in Modern School, Barakhamba Road. Every day after school, we used to drive to Khan Market and get burgers and cold drinks. I went to Lady Shri Ram College, and Amar Colony, which is at a stone’s throw distance from the college, has the best chur-chur naan (from the outlet under the Moolchand flyover). We used to also gorge on tandoori momos from Amar Colony Market. I haven’t explored Gurgaon that much when it comes to food. To be honest, main na puri Dilli ki hoon, meri Gurgaon ke liye utni loyalty nahi hai. Though I have visited Cyber Hub and One Horizon Center, the feeling is not the same as walking around in Khan Market or Connaught Place.”

The actress is gearing up for the release of her two films and says that this will be the busiest year for her. “I just finished shooting for my next film Kadak Singh which is a father-daughter drama with Pankaj Tripathi. The other film Dhak Dhak is also ready for release. It is a story of four women riding bikes from Delhi to Ladakh. Both these films will release in the next couple of months,” says Sanjana, adding that for actors like her, there are a lot of opportunities today, but one has to deal with a lot of uncertainty.

Pankaj Tripathi, known as a versatile performer, has expressed his desire to strike a better work-life balance. Amid his busy schedule, the actor has made the decision to limit himself to a maximum of “four film projects a year”, allowing him to focus on the quality of his work and personal development.

The 46-year-old shares, “I will complete Main Atal Hoon on July 7 and then on July 9, I will join the cast of Stree 2. I am shooting for 360 days in a year aur main asal zindagi mein itna vyast rehne wala aadmi nahi hoon.”

Tripathi attributes his ability to portray diverse characters to his background in theatre and is grateful that he has not been typecast. But, he acknowledges his limitations. “Acting is such an art ki aap utna hi kharch kar sakte ho jitna aapke andar jama hai. So, you need to refill your earnings (life experiences and observations) which I am not able to do at present,” says the actor, wishing to spend time with his family and a couple of months in his village doing farming.

Despite this newfound goal, Tripathi has an array of releases lined up. “I have around six projects slated for release this year, including OMG 2, Fukrey 3, Mirzapur 3, Murder Mubarak, Kadak Singh, Gulkunda Tales, Father and Metro... In Dino,” ends the actor, adding that “a gap of 15-20 days between projects is also important to prep better”.