A couple of days ago, Pratik Gandhi received a call from a man in Hong Kong. The caller told him he was a former classmate of Harshad Mehta and had recently watched Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, the 2020 Web series that made Gandhi a household name. The actor had played the role of the late stockbroker in the show that premiered on Sony LIV. “He told me he had been apprehensive about watching the show, since he had seen Harshad from such close quarters. But just five-six minutes into it and he forgot all about the real guy. For him, I was Harshad Mehta,” he says, clearly overwhelmed and still pleasantly surprised by the appreciation that keeps coming his way, even after seven months of the show’s release.
It would not be far from the truth to say that the Hansal Mehta-directed series has changed Gandhi’s life forever. The 41-year-old has been active in Gujarati theatre for the past 14-15 years and has appeared in a couple of Gujarati movies – including the National Award-winning Wrong Side Raju, but even then, he was not a familiar name for most people. Post the series, producers and directors have been making a beeline to sign him up for mainstream projects.Gandhi is basking in the adulation. “Scam has given me a national as well as international platform. People are offering me mainstream movies. As an actor, I was waiting for this day. What do actors want, after all? We have to first win the maker’s trust, and once you have proved yourself, you can be slightly at ease. Then people don’t come to you with the doubt of whether you can pull off something or not,” he says.
Taking a gamble
Post Scam, one of the first projects he gave his nod to was the recently-released Vitthal Teedi, a Web series on Gujarati content streaming platform OHO Gujarati. In the first season of the six-episode show, Gandhi plays Vitthal, a man from humble origins who is exceptionally skilled at playing cards. “It is a gamble at the end of the day, but for Vitthal, it is all he knows,” says the actor.
Considering the show was his first outing after Scam 92, which was about stockbroking – that some feel is a form of gambling, there was a chance that it could have backfired. But a few minutes into Vitthal Teedi, and you realise how deftly Gandhi transforms himself into the protagonist. Vitthal, like Harshad, has swag but that swag belongs to him and him alone.
There was no apprehension in his mind before taking up this role, Gandhi says. In fact, it posed a challenge for him to make the audience forget about the character that made such an impact on them just a few months ago. “I had to take out Harshad and bring Vitthal alive, whether it was through my body language or something else. I’m glad I could manage to do that and people have liked what I did with my character,” he says.
Regional is the new global
It did not deter him either that he was doing a Gujarati show after a Hindi one. “I believe there is nothing called mainstream anymore, because the audience doesn’t care where it is coming from,” says the actor, who has been catching up on Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam cinema of late.
“Look at the audience that is watching regional content and international content, whether it is on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Sony LIV. It is the same people who watch an OHO Gujarati as well. The point is, makers do not have an excuse anymore – of low budgets or limited resources. Everybody will have to up their game because budget doesn’t define quality,” he says.
Regional, he believes, has always worked well because it has relied on content, and not necessarily star power. “Secondly, regional has its own authentic stories. If you take Vitthal Teedi out of Saurashtra and adapt it to a different setting, you will have to change its entire world. Look at Sairat, the moment you made it larger than life, it lost its essence. I think regional is the new global. Look at a movie like Joji and what Fahadh Faasil did with it. Regional has the power to make it big,” says the actor who is a fan of the Malayalam superstar.
Theatre’s child
Whether he was in Surat where he was born and brought up, or Mumbai where he came in 2004 to become an actor, Gandhi’s equation with theatre has been rock solid. And it is theatre to which he credits all his success.
“I have learnt everything on stage – seeing the character from different perspectives, having a 360-degree approach to acting, being disciplined, being true to the performance, whether it is the fifth show or the 500th,” he says.
The most important thing theatre has taught him, he believes, is that we are human beings and not machines. “You cannot take yourself so seriously because you will make mistakes and that’s alright,” he says.
When asked how he has dealt with the fame and success that came his way after the release of Scam 92, he says: “I have seen in theatre how one show on one day can bring you a standing ovation and another show of the same play on another day may not bring you the same response. Isiliye jitni wah wah aur taaliyaan milti hain, udhar hi chod do aur jaise ghar se aaye thhe vaise hi chale jao (For this reason, leave the praise and applause behind at the theatre, and go back home exactly as you were when you came).”
Actors, he believes, are like scientists and in the business of experiments. “If I stop experimenting and just work on one formula, it won’t work. Unless I reinvent and experiment, I will not grow as an actor,” he says.
Taking the experimentation ahead, there is loads in store from the artiste. Two Hindi movies, Ravan Leela and Atithi Bhooto Bhava, are ready for release. Apart from Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Web series Six Suspects, he will also be seen in the movie Woh Ladki Hai Kahan opposite Taapsee Pannu and in a Gujarati film with wife Bhamini Oza. Apart from these, there are two more films and another Web series that he isn’t at liberty to speak about, he says. What he does reveal is that there is a Tamil-Telugu movie in the pipeline for release in 2023!
Not bad for someone who started his career doing all sorts of odd jobs and left a secure job as a mechanical engineer to pursue a career as an actor. Gandhi says, “I don’t regret anything I have done. They were all my decisions and everything I have done has added a lot of value in my life. At the end, if you are driven by passion, the journey is worth it. You just have to be open and not become bitter trying to reach your goal.”
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