Pankaj Tripathi calls out Hindi films for promoting chest-thumping masculinity, says 'alpha male' needs to be woke | Interview

Pankaj Tripathi talks about his new rom-com Parivarik Manuranjan, romancing Aditi Rao Hydari, and his definition of alpha male.

Pankaj Tripathi is in his romantic hero era. The actor is turning over a new leaf with Parivarik Manuranjan, a romantic comedy opposite Aditi Rao Hydari. The film, which released on SonyLiv today (November 13), sees Pankaj play a small-town loner with a difference. In a conversation with Hindustan Times, the National Award-winning actor spoke about the film, doing ‘ordinary’ films and how cinema has changed the definition of alpha male.

‘Nobody wants to make an ordinary story’

Pankaj Tripathi talks about his new film Parivarik Manuranjan.

Pankaj says he decided to do the film immediately after reading the script. “I received the script at night, read it at night, and called them (the makers) first thing in the morning saying I’m doing it, because I had no doubts about it,” he tells us.

Talking about what compelled him to sign the film, he adds, “I felt it's the kind of story I think about—very close to real life, slice-of-life—and without any gimmicks or screenplay show-offs trying to shock the audience. It’s simple, ordinary storytelling. I call it ordinary because nobody wants to make an ordinary story nowadays; everyone wants to make something extraordinary.”

The actor says that the entry of gimmicks into storytelling has made such simple films rarer today. “It's not that simple films don't come at all now, but they come very rarely. They don't get marketed well, and they are very rare because the medium of storytelling has changed. Gimmicks have entered; everyone wants shock value,” he argues.

‘Never craved to be a romantic hero’

“The way Ranjan Dubey reacts, his thoughts match mine. I think the same way. I thought, great, I don't have to act in this! Now, our thoughts are aligning. But in fact, that becomes even more risky. When you have to act like who you already are, it makes you anxious. Because that doesn't usually happen in the world. People keep what they really are hidden inside. So when a character matches your own thoughts, delivering it becomes even more challenging,” the veteran actor says.

The film marks a rare occasion when the 50-year-old is romancing on screen. But he said he never aspired to be a ‘romantic hero’. He explains, “No, I didn't have a craving to become a typical romantic hero. The romance in this film is of a different kind, not like traditional films. It's not the over-the-top romance we usually see in cinema.”

‘An alpha male is a leader’

The film’s trailer features a line of dialogue that has intrigued audiences: Pankaj’s character says he has had enough of being the beta, and now it’s time to be alpha. The line, in Hindi, includes wordplay on the word beta (son) and also takes a dig at the alpha-male stereotype in mainstream Hindi cinema. Talking about his idea of an alpha male, the actor says it has to be ‘someone who is a leader, without chest-thumping masculinity’.

He says that men have been conditioned to believe that masculinity exists in only certain ways. “Mard ke seene mein dard nahi hota. choodiyan nahi pehan rakhi hain. All these small taglines have been passed down for centuries, from generation to generation. And now when I say this, and you write it in the interview, some people in the comments section might say, ‘He's trying to act very woke.’ Well, that's fine; there is a need to be a little conscious or woke. I don't become nonsensically woke just to say something sensational for the sake of starting a discussion,” says Pankaj.

Directed by Varun V. Sharma, Parivarik Manuranjan is streaming on SonyLiv now.