Pankaj Tripathi may have built a career playing characters rooted in everyday life, but he is now looking for unfamiliar territory. From wanting to play a brutal villain to returning to theatre after over a decade and producing stories that reflect his worldview, the actor is embracing a new phase in his career.‘Every middle-class parent is a superhero’After turning producer last year with eight-episode dramedy Perfect Family, the actor says he’s taking his time to find stories that resonate with him rather than chasing scale or spectacle. He shares, “I’m meeting people and listening to stories. I want to make films based on my taste in storytelling and I’ll do that soon. I don’t like larger-than-life stories because I see humans as humans. I enjoy superhero stories, but they belong in mythology or fantasy. In real life, there are no superheroes — every human is a superhero. Every middle-class parent is a superhero. Those are the kind of relatable stories that attract me.”‘I want to do fantasy and comedy’After years of playing relatable, slice-of-life characters, Tripathi says he’s ready to switch gears. He now wants to explore fantasy, comedy and play a truly menacing villain. He says, “I feel that I have done too much of realistic cinema. Now I want to do fantasy and comedy. It’s been too many years since I played a villain. I even called Amar Kaushik (Stree, Bala, Bhediya) and told him, ‘If you have a script like that, give me a brutal villain’s role.’ I want to play a deadly villain. Bohot ho gaya playing slice-of-life characters. For me, Sultan from Gangs of Wasseypur is still my favourite villain. While growing up, I loved watching Amrish Puri.”‘Real experience is important’Pankaj, who recently went back to theatre after 12-13 years with the play Lailaaj, believes it offers something screens increasingly cannot. He says, “Our work appears on screens and when we do reels we are on screens. I don’t like video interviews because you’re seen on screen again. Real experience is important — like a print interview. You’re just holding a piece of paper and reading it. Joh printed hai utna hi content hai.”‘The live experience is something you simply can’t replicate’Pankaj’s return to theatre was also driven by a desire to experience storytelling without the distractions of the digital world. The Mimi actor says, “I wanted to go back to theatre because the live experience is something you simply can’t replicate elsewhere. When you read digitally, ek ke upar ek pop-up hoga… janjal hai internet ka. It’s a constant distraction. Ninety per cent of people pick up their phone to do one thing and end up doing something else. I wanted that direct connection between performers and the audience that only a live performance can create.”