Pratik Gandhi says in his early days, he was told he wasn't 'hero material': You wonder what you are missing | Interview

Pratik Gandhi talks about his career so far, and on-screen image in an exclusive chat with Hindustan Times.

Be it Harshad Mehta in Scam 1992, Pinku in Madgaon Express, or RAW agent Vishnu in Saare Jahan Se Accha, slowly and steadily, Pratik Gandhi has made the 'man next door' his genre. Playing the everyman comes naturally to the actor. In an exclusive conversation with Hindustan Times, the actor talks about the tag and how he owned it not because of compliments but jibes.

Pratik Gandhi talks about his career so far, and on-screen image.

‘Acha kar lete ho, but…’

As we point out to me his ability to smoothly portray the common man, Pratik says, "If I think back, in my initial days of giving auditions, this is the most common comment I used to get. So, I thought if that's the case, then let me just use it to my advantage."

As we probe him on the kind of comments he would get from directors and casting agents some two decades ago when he started, Pratik recalls: "Good actor, acha kar lete ho, but...dekhte hain (You are a good actor and act well, but we'll see)." Pratik says that the 'dekhte hain' began an introspection in him, when he started to wonder what he lacked. "Then you start interpreting that 'dekhte hain' and you wonder what you are missing. I am talking about 20 years back when I started giving my first auditions."

‘You are not hero material’

Pratik began his acting journey in Gujarati theatre in 2005 with plays like Aa Paar Ke Pele Paar and Apurva Avsar. Even after he attained success with the acclaimed play, Mohan No Masalo (2015), the transition from stage to screen did not happen. He appeared in a handful of Gujarati films, but in Hindi, he was always relegated to being a support act. The actor explains, "The kind of definition we were fed for a hero was so different that if you don't fall into that colour, shape, you are not hero material. I actually started thinking: 'Who is a hero?'"

After small roles in films like Loveyatri and Mitron in 2018, Pratik found his breakthrough playing stockbroker Harshad Mehta in the SonyLIV show Scam 1992. The 2020 web series was acclaimed and catapulted him to stardom, leading to lead roles in films like Madgaon Express, Do Aur Do Pyaar, and Dhoom Dhaam. Talking about playing the unconventional hero in films, Pratik says, "My heroes come from my society, so I thought to use that as a tool." He was most recently seen as a spy in the Netflix series, Saare Jahan Se Accha.

Pratik's upcoming work

The actor will be next seen bringing Mahatma Gandhi back to the screens with Hansal Mehta's series, Gandhi. The show, based on the books Gandhi Before India and Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World by Ramachandra Guha, also features Bhamini Oza and Tom Felton in pivotal roles. The series will have its world premiere in the 'Primetime Programme' of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival