Gurfateh Pirzada is making the headlines recently, and for all the right reasons. The actor, who rose to fame with Kiara Advani’s Guilty and Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt’s Brahmastra, has taken the internet by storm with his portrayal of rebel Neeraj Valmiki in the Netflix show Class.
The Ashim Ahluwalia show revolves around the clash of two worlds when three middle-class students enter an elite school in Delhi. Gurfateh, who plays the role of a Dalit guy, constantly fighting against casteism opened up about his role in the series and talked about how some of his scenes are based on real-life incidents. The actor, being an outsider, also shared his take on nepotism.
Excerpts:
How did your family members and close friends react after the series came out?
Everyone reacted well except half of my family has not entirely seen it. I guess it’s a bit too much for them. My mom has seen parts of it. I started watching the show with my mom, but I think half an hour into the episode, I told her that I will watch it separately in my room. It can get awkward watching certain things with parents.
It takes time to get out of that mindset…
Yes, and I’ve totally done dark things. I think my mom was essentially only happy with Brahmastra because it was all clean. In Guilty, I had a darkish character and Class was also a bit on the line. So the next thing I am doing is hopefully nice and happy. It’s something that my mom will really appreciate and say she is proud of me because I have done something nice and clean.
How similar are Neeraj and Gurfateh?
Not at all. I won’t say that I don’t have those parts of Neeraj in me because I can only play something that I can relate to. If I don’t relate to the character, I would not want to play it. Not many people know this, but the story of Neeraj and the way they carved it out was based on a real-life incident. It’s the story of this Dalit family where the father gave similar names to his kids as the person that he was working for, like the ‘Thakur’ or the landlord of the village. Because he was a worker and a Dalit they did not like his kids having the same name as them. The landlord raped the worker’s wife and eventually killed her. And they were not allowed to have the last rites of their mother. So these two little kids and their father had to pick up the body and dispose of it in a manhole and then eventually, they moved places. So the anger about the unfairness of the world and between the upper and lower class comes from that. I channelled that and tried to read a lot of books and watch a lot of films that were made back in the day about class differences.
The only thing I could relate to was him being around Delhi. I’ve lived in Delhi and studied in a similar school which was full of extremely rich kids. I was there by the virtue of my mom’s job because she was working in the school. My education was literally free. I sort of loved being in the school but also hated it because I had no identity of my own. I was just someone’s kid there. It was not like, I was from an extremely rich family so obviously, I dealt with the identity crisis of being in that place but being an outsider.
Tell us about your bond with your co-stars.
I think it’s wonderful. I was watching the show White Lotus and when I finished it, I counted there were around 21 main characters who actually have different arcs and stories going on. And I thought it was wonderful because when does that happen in India? When do 20-21 big actors come together to do a series and are okay with whatever they get? In Class, out of the 11, eight of us were completely new and it was great to come together like that. I hope few years down the line, all these people are still okay to work with other people and newer actors. I remember meeting an editor of a magazine recently who asked me whether anyone in the cast thinks they have become a star now. Because there is a long journey to go.
Class also sees a conflict between the rich and the poor and insiders versus outsiders. Do you think it mirrors our industry to an extent?
I will say yes and no. I am an outsider, I moved to Bombay in 2014 and reached here with my family with one suitcase and little money in Punjab Mail from Delhi and had nothing to go back to. No contacts. We took it day by day from moving in to doing 5-6 auditions in a day and doing ads and TV serials. Film auditions happened even less. And at that time it wasn’t so systematic. The casting directors had just started coming in. For outsiders it’s hard. The only thing that nepotism gets you access. I felt it myself. When I go to these Bollywood parties, of course, everyone is very inviting and nice, but that familiarity is not there. It is much easier for people in the industry to mingle with the crowd than it is for someone like me. But what can you do? There’s no option. If I become a big star someday and have kids who want to be actors then I will help them. I will tell them to learn as much as they can and become good actors first but if you want to fight this conversation, there is no point. My journey, minus the struggle has been good.
Since the time I started getting work, people who liked it have messaged me and reached out to me. I remember Ranbir (Kapoor) messaging me after watching Guilty and he appreciated my work. He didn’t have to do that, there was absolutely no reason. But that says a lot about him as a person that he appreciated good actors. That’s what is important and I would like to do the same. I am an outsider and some days I hate it, some days I love it but there is no choice.
It also depends on whether the actors can manage to impress the audience.
That’s also true. But what makes nepotism, what makes stars? The people make it. So if there is a star kid who has just arrived with a film, the people who debate about nepotism are the same ones who will go and buy a ticket. That might be for the reason that they want to shit on them or because they are already a fan of their parents or relatives. But they will watch it. If they stop watching it then we can have the debate about nepotism. The reality is people watch their movies so why fight it? The first film is always easy but after a couple of films, when it comes to a long career of 10-15 years, nepotism and outsider don’t matter. What matters is whether you are a good actor.
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