Manoj Bajpayee’s acting inspired me to become an actor, says Shriidhar Dubey

Physics Wallah fame actor Shriidhar Dubey recently visited his alma mater Shri Jai Narain Misra PG College (KKC) in Lucknow as a Chief Guest at an event. The Raat Akeli Hai and Masaan actor was accorded a warm welcome by the staff and students of the college. Dubey interacted with the students at the college and also answered their queries related to his profession of acting and writing.Shriidhar also went around the college reminiscing his days as a student there. “You can say that my journey in showbiz began from this college,” he says, adding, “I was a simple boy, wet behind the ears when I came to Lucknow from Varanasi. It was here in this college that Anshumali sir pushed me into participating in extracurricular activities. That gave me the confidence to go on stage and now I am reaping the benefits of that initial push. I feel so blessed to belong to the city which is known to be a cultural hub with the presence of renowned academies of music, dance and drama. I feel so grateful to Lucknow for not only helping me discover my talents but also for brushing them up,” says Dubey, a trifle emotionally.
Shriidhar with Anurag Kashyap (top left) and Ajay Devgn
Having worked with Vicky Kaushal in Masaan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Raat Akeli Hai, Arjun Kapoor in Half Girlfriend and Sushant Singh Rajput in Son Chiraiiya, Shriidhar says his inspiration to be a film actor came when he saw Manoj Bajpayee’s acting in Shool. “When I saw Manoj sir in the film, I was like, this is the work of a genius. Unko dekh kar maine socha, mujhe bhi actor ban’na hai. His acting inspired me to be an actor too,” he says.
An alumnus of the Bhatkhande Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya and Bhartendu Natya Akademi, in the initial days of his acting career in the industry, Shriidhar also worked as a casting assistant in Gangs of Wasseypur along with being an actor in the movie. He says, “I got to learn acting through theatre but since films is quite a technical genre, it requires an individual to possess the knowledge of all segments such as acting, direction, camera, editing, etc. That I learnt from Anurag Kashyap on the sets of Gangs Of Wasseypur (GOW). He allowed everyone to indulge in all the activities while on the film set. When I used to watch Anurag sir writing scenes impromptu on the sets of Gangs of Wasseypur, it always intrigued me to learn more about it because it is only possible to do that if you’re completely involved in it. Directors like Anurag Kashyap, Imitiaz Ali and Vishal Bhardwaj, this involvement in their craft helps them to bring out the best from their actors because they are so well-versed with all aspects of filmmaking.”
During the making, Shriidhar recalls how he also became the dialect coach to actors like Huma Qureshi and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. “Being from Varanasi, I had good command over Hindi. The language that I had was a kind of mixture of Awadhi, Gorakhpuri, and Bhojpuri language and since the movie was based in that region, Anurag sir asked me to coach the actors in the dialect and pronunciation. So in a way, Gangs of Wasseypur acted like a Film Training Institute (FTII) for me because I got completely trained on the film set to become an efficient actor, writer, casting director, etc,” says Dubey.
Shriidhar with his college mentor Anshumali Jha
Shriidhar clicking selfies with students at KKC, Lucknow
And that is what has led Shridhar to co-write the Ajay Devgn starrer Bholaa, the remake of the Tamil film Kaithi. “Ajay sir had liked the original film a lot and wanted to recreate it into a pan-India film and was looking for someone to do that. That’s when DOP Aseem Bajaj told him about me and introduced me to Ajay sir who asked me to write the script for the film. So I wrote it and took it to him and he was shocked as it wasn’t what he had wanted. Now I was so disappointed and thought ab yeh kaam toh gaya haath se and I will never get an opportunity to work with Ajay sir now. But then he told me to rewrite the script according to the original film, and when I later took the script to him, he was very impressed,” says Shriidhar, who says he has made several changes in the original film story to suit north Indian audiences. “I have incorporated Awadhi language in the dialogues and also introduced a few characters in the Hindi version. This film means a lot to me. I have done writing work earlier but this is the first time I am writing for such a huge star like Ajay Devgn. I have a lot of hopes from this film and I hope to succeed in this too,” says Dubey.
-With inputs by Snigdha Agarwal