Pratik Gandhi on Scam 1992: Many think I became a star overnight

A still from the show

He remembers shooting for a film in Kutch when he got a call. "Hi, I am Hansal Mehta," said the voice on the other end. By the time the call ended, he understood that things were about to change. But his intuition had not prepared him for the overwhelming love that has come his way since Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story dropped online earlier this month. Pratik Gandhi, who has breathed life into the part of Harshad Mehta in the SonyLIV series, exclaims that his phone has been ringing off the hook.

"Many people, who have seen me for the first time, might think I became a star overnight. But truth is, I have been around for 15 to 16 years," says Gandhi. "The biggest difference is that now, makers have started considering me for the lead role in mainstream Bollywood films and web shows. I have received calls where directors said, 'I had written the script with someone else in mind, but after watching this show, I think nobody will suit the role better than you.'"

Pratik Gandhi with Hansal Mehta

The 10-part series helped him gain insight into the two Mehtas - his subject Harshad, the mastermind behind the 1992 stock market scam, and director Hansal, who wanted to demystify it. "Hansal sir is an actor's director. He only kept saying, 'Follow your gut. If you feel you have given your best shot, I am game,'" he recalls.

Harshad Mehta

Some might believe that the acclaim has been overdue for Gandhi, whose romance with acting began in 2005 with the Gujarati play, Aa Paar Ke Pele Paar. The engineer-turned-actor subsequently graduated to Gujarati cinema, making everyone sit up and take notice with his performance in Wrong Side Raju (2016). "From 2008 to 2016, I was a full-time employee at a corporate and did not view theatre as [my primary] source of income. It was only after Wrong Side Raju won the National Award that I quit my job and turned full-time actor."

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