Agni actor Pratik Gandhi reveals his lessons from 2024: ‘After years, I took three holidays and…’

Pratik’s journey to stardom has not been an easy one. Born and brought up in Surat, Pratik had always dreamed of becoming an actor. However, he took the conventional route and pursued a degree in engineering. After completing his studies, he landed a high-paying job as an engineer, but his passion for acting remained unfulfilled.

In 2004, Pratik took a bold decision to leave his lucrative job and shift to Mumbai to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. The city of dreams was not kind to him initially, and he had to struggle to make ends meet. In an earlier interview with indianexpress.com, Pratik had candidly opened up about how he had to juggle a full-time corporate job with theatre rehearsals and TV auditions.

 

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There was a moment in his life when he decided to give up on his high-profile job, which would take him abroad but leave him without acting, his first love. Pratik’s perseverance and determination eventually paid off, and he started getting noticed in the industry.

Today, Pratik is one of the most sought-after actors in the industry, known for his versatility and range. His latest film, Agni, is a testament to his hard work and dedication.

“We don’t often see films made on the lives of firefighters. People still think that when there is a fire, we call the fire department. It’s not like that, calling 101 is not only for fire fighting, it is for disaster management. So, the department is responsible to act in various situations like earthquake, fire, floods, bomb blasts, building collapses, etc. Their (fire fighters’) life is full of difficulty and challenges, so playing a character of a fire fighter was a once in a lifetime opportunity. When I was approached for this role, I was excited and happy that I was even thought of for this role.”

To prepare for the role, Pratik underwent rigorous training with real-life firefighters. “Prepping for this role was a lot of learning. I have seen them up close, trained with them. We have worked with all different elements — fire, water, smoke, everything. It was a very unique experience. We trained with them for over two weeks,” he recalls.

Agni is Pratik’s third release this year, after Do Aur Do Pyaar with Vidya Balan and Madgaon Express with Avinash Tiwari and Divyenndu. All three films have received critical acclaim and love from the audience. When asked if he feels pressure to deliver, Pratik says, “I don’t take any pressure. In fact, I would like to convert all this pressure into excitement. It has helped me all this while, so I don’t want to change it. I am enjoying this phase of my life. With each film, I have been able to play different characters, so it has been a huge learning process, the last five years. It’s been a delightful experience, life-changing experience seeing my career graph go vertically up. Working with a different set of actors, doing very different work, it is the best phase, I am learning so much. People are enjoying my work too, so it is like a fuel to an actor. I am happy with the work that I am doing, that I have done, but I don’t want to take any pressure, responsibility, yes, I do feel responsible but I don’t want to turn it into pressure. I never want to think like, ‘main hi hoon, main hi sab kar raha hoon,’ I want to enjoy my work.”

When asked what advice he would give to his younger self, Pratik says, “If I get to speak to my younger self, then I would ask him to be patient, ‘hadbada ne ki zaroorat nahi hai (there is no need to rush), things will happen when they are meant to happen. Change? I wouldn’t want to change anything, why change the winning combination? I wouldn’t want to change anything that happened in my journey so far…”

This year has been a milestone for Pratik, with three film releases and all of them receiving immense love from the audience and critical appreciation from film critics. We are now heading towards ending this year. When asked about his learnings from the year, Pratik says, “The last full year has been an interesting ride for me. Agni is my last release of 2024. This is the first time in my life, maine saal mein 3 baar chhutti li (I took three vacations) and still felt that ‘ya, things have been ok with me taking the holiday too.’ So, I now feel chhutti leni chaahiye. For years, I hadn’t taken a holiday, even my friends kept telling me that I should take a holiday, I didn’t, so this year taught me that, to let go a little, sit back and relax because one needs to unwind to be able to perform again without wearing out. It’s been an interesting year.”