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actor Pankaj Tripathi has now also become a producer. The acclaimed actor presents the recently released web series, Perfect Family, which premiered on YouTube this Friday. The show highlights topics such as therapy, mental health and personal development. In a candid chat with HT to mark the release of the show, the actor-producer talked about all this and more.
Pankaj Tripathi on perfect family
As a creative person, Pankaj says he turned to production not for money, but for good storytelling. “Content matters; story matters! Even in this (show), na maine ek rupee laga hai, na main ek rupee profit ka loonga ise (I have neither invested anything in it nor will I take a single rupee profit from it).” Ajay Rai, my old friend and producer Gangs of Wasseypur has made it. When they showed me two episodes I came on board to present it. I thought it was a good story that needed to be told,” he explains.
Created by Palak Bhambri, Perfect Family is the story of a dysfunctional urban family who are forced to seek therapy together because their issues are impairing the mental health of their youngest member, a 9-year-old hypersensitive girl.
‘I would dismiss mental health as nonsense’
Pankaj believes that it is important to talk about vulnerability and therapy in the mainstream. “I grew up in a village. Half of my life has been spent there. The environment, way of thinking and upbringing create a different kind of person. When I came to Delhi and Mumbai, I was the same. If anyone talked about it, I would dismiss it as ‘nonsense’, tell them ‘it will take two slaps, you will be fine.’ I might have said something dismissive, because I thought that was it. Nonsense. I assumed that only people who have it all have mental illnesses, but no, it can happen to everyone, rich and poor, successful and unsuccessful,” he explains.
The actor says adopting new thought processes and ways of thinking has made him a better person. He tells us with an example, “When I first came to Delhi, I would have seen a female batchmate smoking and would have formed an impression about her in my mind. But then I realized that if I see a man smoking a cigarette, I don’t form the same image about his character. So, I was doing something wrong.”
Writer Palak Bhambri talks about the perfect family
Writer Palak Bhambri says the trick with Perfect Family was to explore all these ‘heavy’ topics with sensitivity, as the tone of the show is part comedy, part drama. “Therapy, as a concept, is new to India. Hence, a show on it is even new. Saying heavy things lightly is an art we have tried here. At the same time, we did not want to give up the seriousness and sensitivity of the subject,” she explains.
Perfect Family adopts a ‘pay-as-you-watch’ model, released on YouTube, with the first two episodes being free to watch. Fees per episode will be required for the next episode 59, similar to what Aamir Khan did for Sitare Zameen Par earlier this year. Explaining the reason behind this, Pankaj says, “It is a big show in terms of production and canvas. It is not made for YouTube. There is no trend of watching mainstream grand dramas on YouTube yet. But we all use it to promote our shows and films through podcasts and trailers. This gives an idea of the viewership here. So why use it just for promotion? It is a risk but an experiment.”
Perfect Family stars Gulshan Devaiah, Girija Oak, Neha Dhupia, Manoj Pahwa and Seema Pahwa. All eight episodes are available on YouTube.
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