Pankaj Tripathi

Some Lesser Known Facts About Pankaj Tripathi

• He was born in a small village of Belsand in Gopalganj, Bihar.

• His father is a farmer and a very religious person.

• In his childhood, he joined RSS and started visiting its “Shakhas.”

• He wasn’t aware of films till 10th standard because of not having a TV and the nearest theatre was around 20 km away from his village.

• He inclined towards acting in his childhood and from the age of 12-14 years, he started to perform as a ‘girl artist’ at the “Chhath Festival” in his village.

• After getting his primary education, his father sent him to Patna for further studies.

• Pankaj’s father wanted him to become a Doctor.

• While studying in Patna, he joined ABVP and started participating in Student Movements.

• He was an active student leader at his college in Patna and was an eloquent speaker too.

• He was also good at sports and represented his college in High Jump and 100-meter-sprint.

• He also did a course in Hotel Management and worked as a Cook for two years at Hotel Maurya in Patna.

• He got extremely influenced after watching a Proscenium Theater by Laxminarayan Lal titled “Andha Kuan.” He also wept heavily after watching the show.

• It was there in Patna that he became more attracted to art. He started visiting drama shows and theaters and became fascinated with acting. He started befriending cyclists, Auto Wallas, and artists, asking them if he can also act.

• In 1995, he first appeared in a Play of Bhism Sahni’s story of Leela Nandlal directed by Vijay Kumar (an NSD pass out). In the play, he was given a very small role of a local thief. His act was heavily appreciated by the audience and the media as well.

• After 1996, Tripathi became a regular theater artist and did theater for 4 years.

• In 2001, he appeared in the National School of Drama Examination and got selected.

• From 2001 to 2004, he studied at the NSD.

• After NSD, he returned to Patna and did theater for 4 months.

• On 16 October 2004, he moved to Mumbai along with his wife to fulfill his acting aspirations.

• From 2004 to 2010, he did several small roles in films and televisions including a commercial for Tata Tea.

• His wife started teaching at Goregaon in Mumbai.

• His first appearance in a film was for the 2004 film Run starring Abhishek Bachchan and Vijay Raaz.

• In 2010, he got a role in a TV Drama Series titled “Gulal” on Star Plus.

• While shooting for Gulal, he received a call from the casting director Mukesh Chhabra for an audition for Anurag Kashyap‘s film Gangs of Wasseypur starring Manoj Bajpai, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkumar Rao, Richa Chadda, Huma Qureshi, Vineet Kumar Singh, etc. Initially, Anurag was not happy with his audition. However, after being convinced by Mukesh Chhabra, he gave the role of “Sultan” to Pankaj Tripathi.

• His character of Sultan in Gangs of Wasseypur was well appreciated by the audience as well as the critics.

• The success of Gangs of Wasseypur led Pankaj Tripathi to receive more offers from several filmmakers.

• Tripathi’s works in Fukrey, Manjhi: The Mountain Man, and Masaan were also appreciated by both the critics and the audience.

• In October 2022, Pankaj Tripathi became the National Icon of the Election Commission of India; he was already the State Icon of Bihar to create awareness and encourage youth to participate in the elections in Bihar. After the Election Commission of India announced him as its national icon, Pankaj Tripathi reacted to this and said,
  

  I was already the state icon of Bihar associated with Election Commission and during the programme at AIR station Chief Election Commissioner Mr Rajiv Kumar along with Election Commissioner Mr Anup Chandra announced that now I will be the National Icon of the Election Commission of India between the running show and it was a pleasant surprise for me as I wasn’t aware anything such thing was to happen.” ^[1]The Times of India

• On 11 September 2023, Pankaj opened a library at a school in Belsand, Bihar, in memory of his father.

  

• Pankaj Tripathi expressed his love for food, in an interview, and revealed that his favorite Bihari dish is bhujiya. Tripathi went on to share that if he were to open a restaurant, he would promote Bihari and Jharkhand cuisine. ^[2]India Today In the interview, Tripathi said,
  

  Mujhey bhaat, dal aur bhujiya mil jaye to mujhey kuch nahi chahiye sansaar mein (If I get rice, dal and fries, then I don’t want anything else in the world).The purity in those dishes, which is so good for your stomach, is what Bihar’s food is all about. If I ever open a restaurant in the future, I will try to popularise Bihari and Jharkhand cuisine.”

• Pankaj Tripathi was honoured with the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film ‘Mimi’ on 17 October 2023; the award was presented to him by the President of India Droupadi Murmu.

  

• According to Pankaj, Atal Bihari Vajpayee is one of his favourite leaders. He mentioned this during an interview while talking about portraying the character of Vajpayee in the film ‘Main Atal Hoon’ (2024). Pankaj shared that he tried to meet the leader in a crowd during his speech in Patna in 1995-96, but he could not. Pankaj added that he saw an actor for the first time in real life on that day, and that actor was Shatrughan Sinha.

• Click Here to view the video of Pankaj Tripathi’s biography.