Gujarati and Hindi Cinema
on the same day!
Ventilator (Gujarati) & Mitron (Hindi) both to release on 14th September
One of the most sought-after and reliable name in Gujarati theatre and cinema, Pratik Gandhi has paved his way and reached the threshold of Bollywood. Marking his Bollywood debut with "Mitron" alongside Jacky Bhagnani and Kritika Kamra, he has Ventilator in Gujarati to look forward to as well.
Mitron Special
On how he landed a role in Mitron, Pratik elaborates, "Mitron’s director Nitin Khakkar was looking for an actor who can add local Gujarati feel to this character and who looks believable. After watching my work in films like “Bey Yaar” & “Wrong Side Raju” he was convinced I would fit in perfectly. I enjoyed this character because unlike other Hindi films that portray Gujarati characters with fake and loud performances, this film portrayed a very young realistic Gujarati character. This is my debut film in Hindi cinema, so I have learnt a lot from this film, the working pattern, the canvas and the craft differ a lot from the Gujarati industry. It was a learning curve for me and working with Jacky Bhagnani was brilliant. In fact, I thought he would take time to gel with his co-actors but to my surprise, he was the one who made us more comfortable on the sets. Even before the film started we had become “Mitron” in real sense and had a blast while shooting. The character in this film has a different kind of subtle humour for which the Director’s brief to me was ‘doing less will be more’ and that gave me clarity about my character for which I performed humour punches in a tasteful, sober way.”
Ventilator in Gujarati
Another production to look forward to is the remake of the Hit Marathi film Ventilator in Gujarati. The movie has huge ensemble star cast of thirty-five actors and the trailer has already been received positively. Pratik will be the Gujarati counterpart to Jitendra Joshi’s role in the Marathi outing. This emotion stirring film is one of the most anticipated films in the Gujarati film industry is directed by Umang Vyas.
On his role in the movie, Pratik quips, “When I saw the movie in Marathi, I hoped to be a part of such a movie. And as they say, you always attract the things you want in your life, it happened. Niren Bhatt was adapting it for Gujarati, and because we had a karmic connection from “Bey Yaar” days, he straight up told me the role I would be playing. When thing got finalized and I was on board, I met Umang who was to direct it. He is a fantastic guy, full of energy and enthusiasm. It was a breeze working with him. In fact, it was a pleasure working with the whole team.”
Pratik had a starstruck moment when he first met Jackie Shroff for the movie. Sharing more on it, he says, “He is such a humble guy. I was awestruck because I had grown up seeing his movies, and there he was. He just came and put his hand on my shoulder and just like that we got into a comfortable groove. He made me feel like his younger brother, as in the movie also he plays my older cousin brother. He is a gem of a person, such a live wire to have on the set.”
Lovratri in Navratri
This promising actor has many more interesting projects in Dhollywood & Bollywood and right after the release of these films, the next one lined up is “Loveratri” by Salman Khan Films just in time for Navratri. The film penned by Niren Bhatt will see Pratik sharing screen space with debutant actor. Ayush Sharma, releasing on 5th of October. Sharing a little more about this movie, Pratik says, “This is a big banner break for me. I had a great working experience with Ram Kapoor who is a powerhouse of talent and Aayush was fun to work with as co-actor.”
Karmic connection with Niren Bhatt
Pratik Gandhi’s journey with writer Niren Bhatt is a unique one, Niren Bhatt’s writing is so fluid that when an actor reads his script characters one can picture them well, hence Pratik has been a part of many of his scripts from the beginning. Pratik and Niren, one as an actor and one as a writer, both debuted with Gujarati film “Bey Yaar”. The journey continued
to Bollywood with
“Loveratri”. Very few actors are writer’s favourite and are on the writer’s mind while they pen their characters and Pratik has been one such actor for Niren. Bhatt rejoices, “Pratik has always taken my characters to another level with his performance and he invariably adds a layer to the character which I never thought of while writing but is unravelled organically while performing it”.
With the kind of work Pratik Gandhi has been building up his film career with, he sure seems to be in for the long run.
