Priyanshu Painyuli is one of those few actors who has done films, web series, and also a Hollywood project. Yet, he has barley boasted about it time and again under the garb of nostalgia. In this exclusive interview with Firstpost, he chats about his journey as an actor so far, the difference in the working style between Hollywood and Bollywood, what the pandemic taught him, and which audition made him stay awake for two days.
More than six years in acting, so what do you have to say about your journey so far?
It has been a good journey, every project has led me to the next step, I have been climbing the stairs. People keep telling me some of them have not been successful in terms of box-office but I look at the good side of it, because every project has opened certain doors. Directors and producers come up to me and say they really want to work with me. Be it the international audience with Extraction or the small-town audience with Mirzapur, every project has led me to the other project. I hope box-office follows soon, that’s the plan.
How did Rock On 2 happen?
Rock On 2
Yeah, that was the first first. Through auditions. We were running around and giving auditions. Before Rock On 2, I did get offered some parts where I did say no. If I had to come in front of the camera, it had to be something powerful. Before that, I was doing theatre. I wanted to do something where people say, ‘There’s something in him, there’s a performance in him.’ Abhishek Banerjee called me and we had done rigorous audition sessions. He got out of me exactly what he wanted. That’s the only audition where I did not sleep for two nights. But I guess the character demanded that, soft eyes, emotional unstable. So I saw films for references, I saw this film called The Night Crawler.
Tell us something about working on Bhavesh Joshi Superhero with Vikramaditya Motwane. The film is named after your character.
Bhavesh Joshi Superhero
Absolutely brilliant. It will always be one of my most most special films in life. That character is also very special because there’s a bit of Bhavesh Joshi in me, and Motwane sir has a lot of Bhavesh Joshi in him so that’s why we connected a lot because we understood the idea behind the subject. Being a superhero doesn’t only mean doing big things. Sometimes, doing small things for the society can also make you a hero. The process was beautiful, we had great workshops. These were the things I never thought I would do so early in my career. I get a lot of love for the film, people say they cried when Bhavesh Joshi died.
You also did Unpaused with Shreya Dhanwanthary. It was a short story about a couple stuck inside their house due to the pandemic. How was the experience of shooting for that film?
During that time, me and my fiancée were locked down together, we were engaged. We were trying to get married during the first wave of Covid-19 and by the second wave, we were married.
Priyanshu Painyuli and Vandana Joshi
Me and my wife faced similar things. It was weird for everybody because nobody knew what was going to happen next. I didn’t know where my next cheque is going to come from, where the next work is going to come from. What the pandemic taught me was that happiness belongs to the small things in life.
While working on Extraction, did you see any difference in the working style in Hollywood vis-a-vis the working style here?
The basics are the same. The technicality is the same. Two things that I really found different are that Indians are louder people, we talk loudly. The people in Hollywood are not calm, there’s a stress, but they are not loud. I also feel we need to be a lot more disciplined, there’s a lot of discipline over there.
How do see the cult of Mirzapur?
Mirzapur
Mirzapur was already a cult show when I stepped in. The pressure on me was to think how would I step into this world where there are already these biggies. But the good thing was I got to play a character like Robin who’s very different from the world. People loved the character and I came to know about it while I visited different cities. I was shooting for Rashmi Rocket with Taapsee in Ranchi and there was a crowd of over 100-150 people. They didn’t recognize me in that army uniform with that mustache. When they recognized me, they started chanting ‘Arre Robin Bhaiyaa. Yeh bhi theek hai.’ Taapsee literally had to give me a mic and tell me ki Bol do ek baar. That character made me realize how much people love OTT. OTT stories are connecting with people a lot. A hotel manager told me while I took a break from shooting that he’s able to connect to all the characters on OTT, he finds a lot of drama in movies. I just hope we shouldn’t drop on the quality.
You have Pippa coming up. How different is it going to be from the other patriotic films that we have seen?
Pippa
Pippa is based on the 1971 Bangladesh war so we are getting into the details. We don’t have any series of film that focuses on what exactly happened during the Bangladesh war. The story is shown through the point of view of these three siblings. Soni maam is playing our mother, and me, Ishaan, and Mrunal are the three siblings. All three of us are connected to the war. The newness lies in the cast, when people saw the teaser, they found a lot of freshness. We are using real army tanks, we have A R Rahman’s music, Raja Menon’s direction. It’s a big screen film so I’m very very excited.
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