Pankaj Tripathi REVEALS why his photo was on ‘Wanted’ board at police station setup: ‘When art department needed pictures of thieves…'

Pankaj Tripathi struggled a lot both professionally and personally before he could make a place for himself in the film industry. Pankaj Tripathi also worked as a farmer with his father until he was in the 11th standard. Because of his passion for acting, he then studied acting at the National School of Drama and made an entry into Bollywood with supporting roles. Today, Pankaj Tripathi is recognised as a gifted actor with a powerful screen presence. In a recent interview, the actor got quite candid about his early days in the industry. 

Pankaj Tripathi narrated an incident where his photo was spotted on a ‘wanted’ board at a police station setup. Opening up about his initial struggle in Mumbai, Pankaj Tripathi said that because the opportunities were limited and there was no social media presence, auditions became more challenging. He spoke about the time when actors used to visit casting agencies, leaving their photos in cartons, which were then sent for selection. 

Explaining how his photo ended up on a 'wanted' board at a police station setup, Pankaj Tripathi told Indian Express, "Once, a friend of mine got cast in a crime show somewhere. It was a police station setup. He saw a WANTED board hanging there on the set. My friend called me and said, ‘Arey wanted mein teri photo daal di hai (They have given your pic under wanted people).’ I said, ‘Aise kaise (How)?’ I recalled that I had left many of my photos at their office. So, when the art department needed any thief or gangster pictures for the ‘Wanted’ board, they just used those pictures, so mine was up there once."

On the work front, Pankaj Tripathi was last seen in Stree 2 along with Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Abhishek Banerjee, and Aparshakti Khurana. He will be next seen in Anurag Basu's Metro In Dino starring Sara Ali Khan, Aditya Roy Kapur, Ali Fazal, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Anupam Kher, Neena Gupta, and Konkona Sen Sharma in lead roles. He also has Thug Life and Mirzapur The Film in the pipeline.

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