No Simple Trap

Can something that has made you popular also become something you want to escape? Popular film and television actor Anjan Srivastava finds himself in this situation. While he has acted in a number of television serials like Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, Manoranjan and more recently Alpaviram, and films like Golmal, Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na, Pyar To Hona Hi Tha, China Gate and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, it is still as the warm-hearted middle class man on the street, Mr Wagle of Wagle ki Duniya, that he is most remembered.

The versatile actor who was in Pune for a theatre performance says: “The role that made me popular is proving to be a drawback. I’m a versatile actor and yet am typecast as the good guy because of that role. Even directors like J P Dutta and Rahul Rawail would not offer me negative roles. They would say `he’s such a nice man, how can we give him that role?’ I am capable of much more. Don’t typecast me,” says Srivastava. He does concede though that there is a little bit of Wagle in himtoo. After all, he based the character on his own father. “Like him I am simple too. But in the film business, simplicity doesn’t work.”