Pratik Gandhi: ‘I am told, you have done well, but on OTT’

Pratik Gandhi. Pics/X, Instagram

Stepping into the shoes of a revolutionary for a biopic can be exhilarating as well as daunting. For Pratik Gandhi, it's doubly so, as he will be seen essaying two leaders - Mahatma Gandhi in Hansal Mehta's web series, Gandhi, and Jyotirao Phule in Ananth Mahadevan's Phule - soon. As he offers a retelling of Gandhi leading India's freedom fight against the British, and Phule's anti-caste movement, Pratik highlights that the two social leaders had a similar starting point. "The one thing common between them is that before they did what they did, they were like us. My journey to create these two characters starts when they weren't Mahatmas. So, I have explored them as humans, with their passion, zest, and that fire from within," shares the actor.

(From left) Mahatma Phule, and Mahatma Gandhi

Besides the two releases, the year ahead looks creatively exciting for Pratik, who has three films and a new play in the pipeline. Since breaking out in Hindi entertainment with Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (2020), he has steadily become among the most talented and reliable actors of the current crop. But the actor reveals that even today, he faces rejections. "When discussing their next theatrical film, the [makers] tell me, ‘We need an actor who can get the audience to the theatres. You have done very well, but on OTT.' So, the onus is on me to prove myself in yet another medium," he says. This comes even after he delivered a theatrical hit in Madgaon Express last year. "But the fact that I have to mention my success says a lot. If I have to blow my own trumpet, what sense does it make?"

It could make one bitter, but not Pratik. The actor admits that years of rejection, before he found success, have prepared him for such curveballs. He reflects, "If success had come in the first attempt itself, it might have been difficult to be realistic. But rejections have prepared me for fame and handling success. They have also prepared me to stay away from negativity and think differently, where I take the onus of everything. [I think that] I haven't given the other person enough reasons to cast me. So, I want to excel to a level that even without any leverage, people would want to work with me."

The Mahatmas and me

While Mahatma Gandhi led India's freedom fight against the British, Jyotirao Phule fought the rampant casteism in India. Despite their different causes, Pratik Gandhi notes that both leaders, in their own way, believed in the philosophy of non-violence. "Gandhi's circumstances and motives were incidental. Phule was victimised because of casteism and took a stand through education. He believed that people could only fight with education. So, in a way, he, [like Gandhi], promoted ahimsa; he might not have called it that," he states.