BHUBANESWAR: Actor Amol Parashar questioned the notion of the ‘alpha male’ and said the terminology itself was borrowed from the wolf pack and had little relevance to human behaviour.
Speaking during a session titled ‘From Chitvan to Dr Prabhat: Staying Close to The Ground’ at the Odisha Literary Fesitval on Saturday, he said, “The discourse of calling people Alpha and Beta is something I don’t subscribe to.”
The actor said the notion that men who do not resort to violence or abuse are somehow inferior was problematic. “There is always an alpha above us, for example, the boss or even the director on set. So the whole idea that people who don’t beat up and abuse others are somehow lesser than the alpha man is wrong.”
Parashar said his play ‘Besharam Aadmi’ questions conventional expectations placed on men. “I think the idea that men are only supposed to be a certain way and that way is the only way to make them attractive or desirable is what I questioned in the play.”
He also spoke about his unconventional journey into acting. A student of DPS, RK Puram in Delhi, Parashar said he was a nerd and not involved in dramatics at school. He later graduated from IIT Delhi and worked at a corporate firm, where, he said he was “crunching numbers for the Americans.”
Recalling his IIT days, he said, “Everyone was doing some or other extra-curricular activity and I just thought it would be fun to try acting.” He performed his first play during his second year at IIT Delhi as part of the annual cultural festival Rendezvous.
After moving to Mumbai, Parashar began doing theatre. He also performed in street plays, acted in malls, and also dubbed for films.
His breakthrough came with the 2016 series Tripling in which he played Chitvan. The actor described Tripling as an “overnight jump” in his career, particularly because the show reached a large online audience and earned him recognition and greater currency as an actor.
Parashar also spoke about his portrayal of Bhagat Singh in the 2021 movie Sardar Udham and agreed with a suggestion that revolutionaries such as Singh were the Gen-Z of that era.
Speaking about his recent work, Parashar said the response to his character Dr Prabhat Sinha in Prime Video’s Gram Chikitsalay had been encouraging, with the second season receiving an even better response.