Pankaj Tripathi has solidified his place in the film industry as a versatile and bankable actor. The actor is known for his iconic character Kaleen Bhaiya which was recently reprised for the third season of Mirzapur. In an interview with News18 Showsa, the National Award-winning actor his approach to the Kaleen Bhaiya character, how he made it his own, and why box office numbers don't affect him. 

Talking about his character of Kaleen Bhaiya in Mirzapur, Pankaj said, “He’s not hungry for power or aggressive,” Tripathi said. “If you set aside his profession, he’s actually a very decent guy. I have made him relatable to the audience.” 

“If you notice, you will see that Kaleen Bhaiya is actually quite graceful. I’ve made the character that way. He talks to everyone with a lot of respect, except his wife. Par wahi toh charitra hai na samaaj ka (isn’t that the reality of society?)”, he added. 

He also opened up about his reliability and how he maintains it on-screen and off-screen. Tripathi said, “In films, we are just actors. But in real life, we are both the actor and the director. If we misdirect, we will become someone else. Relatability is extremely important to connect an actor with the audience, but it has to be organic and that’s where craft comes into play.”

He gave an example of an incident from his visit to the Hindu College in Delhi. He said, “There was this girl who spoke to me and said, ‘Aap aise lagte ho ke mere chacha ho.’ I smiled and said, ‘Main toh tumse pehli baar mil raha hoon aaj. Phir chacha kaise lagta hoon? (We have just met today. How do I seem like your uncle?)’ But I realized it’s through my characters that are extremely relatable.”

Pankaj also touched on the failure of his last film 'Main Atal Hoon', a biopic of the former Prime Minister of India. The movie did not do well at the box office. When asked if the failures bother him, he said, “Not at all. If I know that I’ve given my 100 percent during the shoot and stayed true to my craft, why should I feel bad about it? I understand the box office business. Fortunately, all the films I have done, whether or not they were box office successes, have managed to return money to the producers. I know the math.”

Pankaj Tripathi will soon be seen in Stree 2, along with Shraddha Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Abhishek Banerjee, and Aparshakti Khurana.