Pankaj Tripathi and director Srijit Mukherji graced the press conference for the upcoming Hindi film Sherdil: The Pilibhit Saga.

“I read about the events in a report and I was moved by it. Such gruesome events happen due to poverty in our country. The way I have shown in the film is that of a social satire. My narration is less gruesome than the incident I read about initially” said Srijit Mukherji.

Pankaj Tripathi plays the role of Gangaram. He adopts the infamous tiger practice. He is willing to give up his life so that the families in the village can benefit from the government scheme money that is promised to the family of the tiger attack victim. He enters the forest one day and waits for his death. He meets a poacher Jim. What follows next?

“I have grown up in a village and I am aware of the attacks by animals. Though we never had tiger attacks in our village Nilgai used to come into our village. So I could connect with the story of the film” said Pankaj Tripathi.

Srijit Mukherji when asked on why he selected Pankaj Tripathi for the role said “I wanted an actor who could blend well with the character. And Pankaj Tripathi could do so very well. He even gave us insights about many things in the script that could make the film better. He even helped with the development of the character of Gangaram”.

Pankaj Tripathi and Srijit Mukherji both love the forests. He mentioned how they used to go to the jungles early in the morning and continued with the shoot according to the sun.

Srijit Mukherji mentioned how he had developed a great friendship with the actor. “The fact that we both have a world outside films and the way we could connect with each other was special to me. We discussed politics, philosophy, food, music and we had a lot of adda. I never felt that I was acting with such a reputed actor” added the director.

Pankaj Tripathi said that the scripts were the hero who could do magic. Though the actors are given credit they are actually small parts of a bigger picture and the script is the most important element.

When asked whether he would love to do a biopic, the actor said that he would love to portray Bhikari Thakur on the big screen. Bhikari Thakur was a renowned Bhojpuri language poet, playwright, lyricist, actor, folk dancer, folk singer, and social activist.

The actor also said that he would love to direct a Bhojpuri film that will be different from the usual Bhojpuri films.

On speaking about her association with Gulzar for this film, Srijit Mukherji said “I knew that Gulzar Saab will only write a song after he sees the film. He is very selective now about the work he does. He saw the film and gave me a call to meet him. He thanked me for giving me a chance to write a song for this film. That is probably the best award I could get”.

Srijit expressed his sadness about getting the chance to work with KK for just one film. “I had so many plans of working with him. I even told him that his voice was a huge part of my childhood. However, he left too early” added the director.

The actor and director duo went to the Victoria Memorial and gorged on Phuchkas.

The film is slated for release on 24^th June.

Video link of the event- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkqX2LwHh5Q

Priyanka Dutta