Pankaj Tripathi admits judging female batchmate for smoking during NSD days: 'But then I realised...' | Interview

Pankaj Tripathi talks about his maiden production, Perfect Family, and how the show deals with mental health and personal growth.

Actor Pankaj Tripathi is now producer Pankaj Tripathi, too. The acclaimed actor has presented the recently released web series, Perfect Family, which premiered on YouTube this Friday. The show explores topics such as therapy, mental health, and personal growth. In a candid chat with HT to mark the show’s release, the actor-producer spoke about all this and more.

Pankaj Tripathi has turned producer with the web series, Perfect Family.

Pankaj Tripathi on Perfect Family

As a creative person, Pankaj says he turned to production not for money, but for good storytelling. “Content matters; the story does! Even in this (show), na maine ek rupaya lagaya hai, na main ek rupaya profit ka loonga isse (I have neither invested anything in it, nor will I take a single rupee of profit from this). Ajay Rai, my old friend and producer from Gangs of Wasseypur, has made this. I came on board to present it after he showed me two episodes. I felt this was a good story that needed to be told,” he explains.

Created by Palak Bhambri, Perfect Family is the story of a dysfunctional urban family that is forced to take therapy together as their issues are derailing the mental health of their youngest member, a 9-year-old hypersensitive girl.

‘I would dismiss mental health as faltu ki baat’

Pankaj admits that talking about hypersensitivity and therapy in the mainstream is necessary. “I grew up in the village. Half my life has been spent there. The environment, way of thinking, and upbringing create a distinct kind of person. When I came to Delhi and Mumbai, I was the same. If someone talked about this, I would dismiss it as ‘faltu ki baat’, would tell them ‘do thappad lagega, theek ho jaoge (you’ll be ok if you get two slaps)’. I may have said something dismissive, because I used to think this was all rubbish. I assumed that only those who have it all have mental illnesses. But no, this can happen to the rich and the poor, the successful and the failures,” he explains.

The actor says that opening up to new thought processes and ways of thinking has made him a better person. He tells us with an example, “When I first came to Delhi, I must have seen a female batchmate smoking and made an impression of her in my mind. But then I realised, if I watch a man smoke a cigarette, I don’t form that same image about his character. So, I was doing something wrong.”

Writer Palak Bhambri talks Perfect Family

Writer Palak Bhambri says the trick with Perfect Family was to explore all these ‘heavy’ topics with sensitivity, as the show’s tone is part comedy, part drama. “Therapy, as a concept, is new to India. So, a show on it is even more novel. Saying heavy things in a light way is a craft that we have tried here. At the same time, we did not want to let go of the seriousness and the sensitivity of the subject matter,” she explains.

Perfect Family has adopted the ‘pay-as-you-watch’ model, releasing on YouTube, with the first two episodes free to watch. The subsequent episodes need a per-episode fees of ₹59, similar to what Aamir Khan did for Sitaare Zameen Par earlier this year. Explaining the rationale behind this, Pankaj says, “It is a big show in terms of production and canvas. It has not been made for YouTube. There is no trend of watching mainstream grand dramas on YouTube so far. But we all use it to promote our shows and films, via podcasts and trailers. That shows the size of the audience here. So why use it just for promotions? It is a risk but an experiment.”

Perfect Family stars Gulshan Devaiah, Girija Oak, Neha Dhupia, Manoj Pahwa, and Seema Pahwa. All eight episodes are available on YouTube.