'Wish I were more caring towards my parents,' says Pankaj Berry

MUMBAI: Veteran actor Pankaj Berry, who is currently seen playing the role of a father, Dilpreet in the show 'Dil Diyaan Gallan', said that he connected well with his role as somewhere it reflects his emotions and guilt.

The actor said that he found himself guilty of not being so caring as a son towards his parents, and the family drama also brings out similar realisation and pain.

He told IANS: "I was born in a joint family and have seen how much effort parents put in the upbringing of their children. But when they grow up and start living their own life, somewhere they forget their responsibility towards their parents. Even I feel that I had to be more caring for my parents. I wish I had given more prominence to them rather than solely focusing on fulfilling my dreams. That is why I accepted this role so that maybe after watching the show, others don't make similar mistakes and never allow any communication gap with their parents."

The show is all about the pain and agony of parents because of the differences with their children. Pankaj plays a father who is depressed because of his son. He added that his son is also going abroad and he is not willing to send him.

"I told my wife that my condition is going to be like Dilpreet (his character) as Arjun is going abroad, why we don't let him study here in India; but my wife is strong and she asserted that it is important for his career. I also agree, children must follow their dreams but always try to stay in touch with their elders through video calls or phones or by visiting them whenever they have time."

Sharing a shooting experience in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, he recalled: "While we were shooting in Punjab, an old man came to me and told me in Punjabi, you are showing a reality. He said: 'My son stays in Canada but we hardly visit there as they are all busy in their life and we just keep waiting for them.' In another incident, we had to shoot a wedding sequence and we were in a village in Eastern UP, there the owner of the house where we were shooting told me that his two sons are staying away from him and he showed me their rooms which were locked. He added that he is not talking to one of his sons as my character in the show."

The 66-year-old actor made his TV debut with 'Gul Gulshan Gulfaam' and also went on to act in 'Tenali Rama', 'Junoon', 'Ek Tha Rusty', 'Swabhimaan', 'Peshwa Bajirao' and he was last seen in 'Kaatelal & Sons'.

Speaking about his interest in acting and how it started, he said: "I was passionate about acting since childhood. I used to take part in my elder brother's theater group. However, it was during the final year of graduation when I took part in a festival and received a lot of appreciation for my work. From here, I decided to take formal training in acting. I joined the Department of Indian Theatre and while staying in Chandigarh and got two major breaks. However, the films never released but I reached Mumbai. And from there I never looked back."

He also recalled the tough period of his life after he met with an accident during the shoot of the 1993 action film 'Sainik' starring Akshay Kumar: "That was the worst phase of my life. I was getting so many roles before this mishap. It led to major physical, mental and financial trauma. But I managed to recover and started getting projects."

He further shared that he is never interested in doing saas-bahu saga. He prefers to do challenging roles and this is the reason he took up this show.

Pankaj revealed about his upcoming projects and said: "There are several projects that I am doing and they will be releasing soon including 'Shubh Nikaah', 'Zindagi Shatranj Hai', and 'Manihaar'.

SOURCE: IANS