'Made Enough For a Simple Life’: Pankaj Tripathi on Initial Days In The Industry

Pankaj Tripathi's upcoming biographical drama, Main Atal Hoon, is all set to hit theatres on 19 January. The film follows the life of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It shows Vajpayee's journey from being a young leader to co-founding the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Quint spoke to Tripathi about his initial days in the Hindi film industry, whether he feels social media affects creativity and freedom, his thoughts on propaganda films and more.

When asked about whether Main Atal Hoon can be viewed as a propaganda film the actor replied, "It's not the audience who thinks about a film as a propaganda film. They have nothing to do with it. If I say something it can be my point of view. I know we have made an honest film, but we will only know what we have made when it reaches the audience."

Talking about his initial days in the industry, Pankaj said, "People might think it was a very difficult time for me, but it was a very good time. I didn't feel it was a difficult time for me. I was making enough to lead a simple life."

The actor spoke his wife working as a school teacher and said, "We had a small house and in those days when I would shoot for 4 days also it used to be enough to run the house." The actor concluded but saying, "That time I didn't realise it was a bad time, now when people ask I realise it was a tough time and I needed inspiration."