Actor Piyush Mishra does not have a dream role to play. In fact, dream roles are never made in Bollywood, he feels.
"In the Hindi film industry, actors like us have to bank upon with whatever roles we are offered by directors. We cannot be choosers. The situation in theatre though is different," said the brutally honest Mishra, who was in Bhubaneswar to attend a session ‘Guftagoo with Piyush Mishra’ at the Odisha Literary
Festival.
He believes that actors are like peons in films but they are considered kings in theatre. “Actors industry main peon ke barabar hote hain...They do not have a say in the script or film-making. In the current scenario,
an actor is just a visual representative of a film. Lekin theatre jagat main unhe raja mana jata hai,” said the witty actor.
Mishra, who also dons the roles of a lyricist, scriptwriter, and singer in the industry, was last seen as a shrewd, manipulative and misogynist lawyer Prashant Mehra in Soojit Sarcar's 'Pink'.
"I got several mails from women across the country, which read 'Respected Sir, If you were not Piyush Mishra, then we would have killed you,"said the actor, adding that he was happy that women hated his character.
"The anger towards Prashant means that I was true to the character." The actor admits that he never excepted 'Pink' to receive the kind of appreciation it did.
"We knew that this film will be received well but I did not know it will become a cult movie. I am happy that the filmmaker did not cut my role because, if he did, it would have looked out of place," he said, while admitting that he is against feminism. For him, feminism means creating a safe environment for women and allowing them to grow in the society.
"I consider myself a feminist because I respect the fair sex. If I had a daughter, I would not have allowed my girl to stay out of the house for late night parties or spend nights at pubs or discos. No father in the country would allow his daughter to do so considering security concerns in today's society. Yeh feminism ke naam paar naarebazi ki koi meaning nahi hai," said Mishra, who was associated with Left wing politics for 20 years.
"I regret spending those precious 20 years of my life working for the Left, which is doing absolutely nothing for the nation today. In fact, in all these years, I have not understood the ideology of Left," said the alumnus of National School of Drama, who is also known for his compositions in films like ‘Black Friday’ and ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’.
His next venture is 'Palki', a 2016 Indo-Canadian Hindi-language drama film written and directed by Shailender Vyas.
It features Ritika Anand and Mishra in lead roles and Rajesh Sharma and Vibha Chibber in supporting roles. The film explores the issue of abandoned Punjabi brides, lack of female education and empowerment and is set to release in 2016. A Punjabi village farmer, Balbir Singh (Mishra), marries off his daughter, Palki (Ritika Anand), to an NRI, Paran (Manwinder Gill) only to learn that he disappears in Canada after the wedding.
"In Canadian Law, there is a provision that if your wife does not stay with you for a year, you can divorce her. Many Punjabi youths settled in Canada come down to Punjab and marry, but never take the brides along with them to Canada on the plea that their passport and VISA are getting delayed. At the end of a year, they divorce their wives and search for new brides. The movie is aimed at creating awareness on this social menace," he says. The film is based upon the stage play 'Palki', which was staged at Vision 10 Bollywood Arts Institute in Calgary in 2006.
Mishra is currently penning a fictional novel in Hindi ‘Hamlet Kabhi Bombay Nahi Gaya’ which is likely to be published within two years. “It is about the story of a Gwalior-born youth who struggles to be an actor and goes to Delhi and then Mumbai to find a place in the film industry,” he said, adding that he has already completed the Gwalior chapter.
To a question on his favorite actor and actress today, he loves Om Puri, Amitabh Bachchan, Ranvir Kapoor, Richa Chaddha and Swara Bhaskar. "I hope I had a son like Ranvir. We gel along really well on the sets. He is the future of Bollywood after Bachchan Saab because he does everything in the industry and is extremely dedicated," said Mishra, who has worked with Kapoor in 'Tamasha' and 'Rockstar'.
On his love for Odisha, Mishra said, "I had heard a lot about Odisha. This was my second visit to Bhubaneswar. This is an extremely beautiful, well planned green city like Chandigarh and the hospitality is perhaps the best in the country. I love the Chennapoda here. In fact, my wife had asked me to bring back Chennapoda in large quantity"."