10 years of Fukrey| Did you know Pankaj Tripathi’s angrezi was not part of the script?

Pankaj Tripathi can’t believe that it’s been 10 years since Fukrey released, already. “Mujhe toh pata hi nahi chala kaise nikal gaye! Mujhe shooting ka sab yaad hai,” laughs the actor, who plays the role of Pandit in the franchise.

“I had gone to the production house’s office to give an audition, and did two scenes in front of the casting director Honey Trehan and director Mrigdeep Singh Lamba. Phir meri casting hui. My shoot lasted for some 10 odd days then, because my character wasn’t too big then. My scenes were limited to the cabin my character sits in inside a college. He only ventures out two times in the film. Second part mein emra role badh gaya,” shares the 46-year-old.

Tripathi in fact equates his own journey as an actor, to how Fukrey found acceptance. “Fukrey franchise aur meri growth badi similar hai. Main Pandit se chalu hoke, Fukrey 3 tak jaise grow kiya. Mere character ne apni ladai khud ladi. It became so big that the writers had to write more for it in the second instalment,” he says.

Memories of shooting for the comedy film are still fresh his mind. “I was meeting all these new boys for the first time when we met for a rehearsal- Ali (Fazal), Pulkit (Samrat), Varun (Sharma) and Manjot (Singh). Hum Dilli mein khoob ghooma karte the. Jis din off hota tha, main pahaunch jaata tha Bengali Market, Connaught Place. Miranda House, where we shot the film,there was a chole-kulche stall outside. I would eat a lot from there,” Tripathi remembers fondly.

What not many know is that all the funny lines in English which his character Pandit says in the film- were not even a part of the original script! “Pandit ka angrezi humour… ek din, set pe lighting chal rahi thi, someone came and said something to which I replied ‘He’s so vulgar’ and everyone started laughing. The director said isko rakho film mein. Then when they go to give the gold to Bholi Punjaban’s character, and she says it’s fake, my character says ‘How disgusting’ It was all improvised,” he chuckles.