Pratik Gandhi: The Man of Many Parts

AS A CHILD he would ac­company his father and uncles, all teachers, to the Vaishnav mandir in their village, Kadod, near Surat. There was just a wall between their home and the temple. Every vacation, they would all perform haveli sangeet and would sing, while playing the pakhawaj, tabla and jhanj. All of ten, the young boy was interested only in the mohanthal and the boondi ladoo he would get as prasad, reserved only for the singers. Spurred on by the dessert treat, he would play the tabla with enthusiasm. It laid the foundation of the performer in him, a man willing to get under the skin of any character to entertain people.

Now 45, Pratik Gandhi has essayed some great men, some scamsters, and several ordinary people. He has played stock market manipulator Harshad Mehta in the star-making SonyLIV series Scam 1992 (2020); been a closet gay man in Prime Video’s Mod­ern Love: Mumbai (2022); an indecisive husband in Do Aur Do Pyaar (2024); a confused NRI in the comedy Madgaon Express (2024), a firefighter in Netflix’s Agni (2024), a pole dancing day-old husband in Dhoom Dhaam this year, and most recently Mahatma Jyotirao Phule in Phule, based on Jyotirao and Savitribai’s contributions to education and caste reform in 19th-century Maharashtra.

Phule’s release was postponed in April, following objections from a section of the Brahmin community in Maharashtra regarding the film’s depiction of their community. The CBFC requested the filmmakers make several edits, including the removal of a voiceover referencing the caste system and specific caste-related terms.

Gandhi is still to recover from the controversy. He says the film challenges the caste system, and shows the reality of those times. And when the movie was finally released, those who complained about it just melted into the crowd. “They are all faceless bots,” he says but it makes the job of artists diffi­cult. “We’re constantly over-thinking and need to work doubly hard to handle such pressure. It’s scary to not be allowed to do something where you’re not harming or kill­ing anyone. It is disheart­ening for any producer who wants to make a film like this where he or she knows from the get go that they will not be making ₹1,000 crore at the box office,’’ he says. “Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that Phule would antagonise anyone. I was really shocked. You cannot deny history. One has to read Gulamgiri where he wrote exactly what happened. We haven’t changed facts. Nor have we done anything to harm anyone’s sentiments,” he adds.

This is not the first time that Gandhi has found himself in the eye of a film storm. “I saw the same thing with my 2021 film Bhavai which was earlier called Raavan Leela. Out of nowhere people turned up to protest against it, using the most uncivilised language against my family. And they say they are Ram Bhakts. My mother is a retired teacher of languages. She has nothing to do with cinema. She gets scared.” Gandhi played Ravan in a play within the movie.

After completing a diploma in industrial engineering from North Maharashtra University in Jalgaon in 2004, Gandhi started looking for work in both fields, engineering and entertain­ment. “Between 2004 and 2008, there was a new serial every week and new faces being launched every week. But I was never selected despite several audi­tions,” he says. Just as well. He became a consultant engineer to the National Pro­ductivity Council in Mumbai. In 2008, he was asked to join Reliance Energy but continued to do experimental Gujarati theatre. He joined Reliance Cement in 2016 and did his first two Gujarati films during his stint there.

Gandhi took 20 days leave for the 2016 film, Wrong Side Raju, which won Best Gujarati Film at the National Awards and introduced as well as en­deared him to Gujarati film audiences. That is also when he took a leap of faith and decided he could not sail in two boats at the same time. He had got an offer from one of the big four consultan­cies. “That’s when I made up my mind. It will be now or never.”

It took national audiences another four years to discover Gandhi which they did with Scam 1992. Gandhi cap­tured Mehta’s indomitable spirit with swagger. He channelled his angst at the class divide in the financial markets but he also portrayed his undoing by greed. His cocky smile and the line, “Risk hai to ishk hai,” became an iconic meme.

That is when his Phule director Ananth Narayan Mahadevan first met him. Mahadevan, who is also an ac­tor, was playing the RBI governor and recalls: “We had one scene and when we rehearsed it I realised how disciplined, committed and understated he is. He is what we call a late bloomer, and when I wrote Phule I did so keeping him in mind.”

Gandhi is now all set to show us his work as the greatest Mahatma, Mohandas Gandhi, in the first part of his biopic, directed by Hansal Mehta and based on the book by Ramachandra Guha, Gandhi Before India. The series explores the politicisation of the young Mahatma. Kasturba will be played by his wife, Bhamini Oza, whom he met while doing theatre in Mumbai. “What are the chances of playing two Mahatmas of India in one lifetime? These are my he­roes, including Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel,” says Gandhi. “Everything Jyotirao and his wife fought for are still sadly relevant today. The fight is not over.”

ANDHI IS AN inveterate performer. “I’ll do anything,” he says. “Plays, short films, feature films, series. I don’t want to get burnt out,” he adds. He has just returned from performing his one act play Mohan No Masalo in Dubai for the Doha Gujarati Samaj. It may be his father’s genes do­ing the talking—Jayant Gandhi was a trained Bharatnatyam dancer, apart from being a teacher of English. “He was my biggest cheerleader,’’ says Gandhi, and was his biggest support when he decided to quit the corporate world. “He kept telling me what was the worst that would happen. You won’t have your own car, your own house but you will be very happy with what you’re doing. I think we often delay decisions by telling ourselves what will our family think. But the person we have to convince most is ourselves.”

Scam 1992 was the last project he discussed with him. That was also the time that his father’s cancer was discov­ered and had to be treated. “The cost was beyond our imagination. We had spent ₹ 35 lakh on the treatment and he was very worried about our financial situa­tion. I miss him so much.”

Gandhi has been working nonstop. Last year, he worked in Ghamasaan, directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia. This year expect him to see in a spy series ‘Sare Jahaan Se Accha’ and also in ‘Woh Ladki Hai Kahan’ with Taapsee Pannu. He has just completed a film with Agni director Rahul Dholakia. He is beginning another series directed by Sumit Purohit, the writ­er of Scam. “It is another socio-political se­ries. But we cannot make sterile, sanitised films for the audience. No audience will like a whitewashing of the past.”

The cabal of the offended is not the only thing that worries him. Having studied engineering, he knows the state of infrastructure in the country. “There is so much being built in Mumbai that is changing its face. Everything has been uprooted. I go outside, and no one looks happy. There is so much simmer­ing rage there,” he says. That’s not all. “India is the only country where we fine people for their own safety on the roads,” he says.

He comes from a simple, middle class Gujarati family, says Dholakia who has cast him in a film he is shooting on India’s first General Election. “He is a good reader of the script and comes totally prepared to the set. But the industry with its self-cen­sorship and all-compliant storytelling is not allowing actors like him, Rajkummar Rao and Jaideep Ahlawat to show their edgy potential and play characters that youngsters want to see in theatres.”

Every role leaves a little bit of it in Gandhi, whether it is a newfound respect for the social realities of India; an appreciation of the burden our firefight­ers bear; or the heroes of the freedom movement. And every role has a little bit of Gandhi in it too—his honesty of purpose and his undiluted desire to entertain. Nothing he does is unthink­ingly, which is why he stands out in a sea of imposters and poseurs.

actorBollywoodcinemaPhulePratik GandhiScam 1992