Pavail Gulati recently starred in Anurag Kashyap's Dobaaraa, which earned rave reviews. (Photo: Pavail Gulati/Instagram)Pavail Gulati is on a roll, after having collaborated with filmmakers such as Anubhav Sinha, Anurag Kashyap and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and now awaiting his next feature co-starring megastar Amitabh Bachchan. But the actor insists, his journey to success was dotted with bumps.
After more than a decade of being in the industry, Pavail Gulati shot to wide-spread fame with 2020’s Thappad, where he featured alongside Taapsee Pannu. His breakthrough was followed by multiple COVID waves, post which he re-teamed with Taapsee for the recently released sci-fi thriller Dobaaraa.
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He is now awaiting releases of two big projects, the comedy-drama Goodbye with Rashmika Manadanna and the SonyLIV series Faadu. After years of struggle, hard work and rejections, Pavail tells indianexpress.com that he is in a “happy space.”
“Things come very late to me in life. There has been a pattern, right from when I was a child to now, when I am an actor. But when they do, they always come in abundance. Back in the day, I used to feel envious of my contemporaries when they were doing better work.
“That was definitely a phase, because I didn’t have that. But thankfully today, I feel better because even I’m doing nicer work. I’m working with people I always wanted to work with and even they’re keen to work with me. That’s an amazing feeling,” Pavail shares.
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The Delhi-born actor moved to Mumbai at 18 with acting aspirations, but soon realised that making big on the celluloid is not a cakewalk. He was stuck giving numerous rounds of auditions, followed by rejections. The key to stay afloat, Pavail says, is to never set a deadline to one’s success.
“Every day I felt that my journey was difficult, and it wouldn’t be easy to reach where I want to. You feel that after every rejection, every phone call you make. It’s a really hard world in the industry, there were moments when I felt dejected, that nothing was working for me.
“But from the start, I didn’t put a clock to myself. There wasn’t any deadline that if nothing works out in a year, I’ll for something else. I was persistent and had the patience for it.”
The moment he stepped into casting, Pavail says new doors opened for him. He now had a rare inside view of the industry and how actors are cast or rejected. The understanding, Pavail says, helped him to not turn bitter.
“Being part of casting did help me rationalise my own rejections. Until you’re on the other side, you don’t know why people are rejected, how does the casting happen. It’s not just one person taking the audition, it’s also the other person who sees the audition later.
“Then they are presented to the director, who then presents it to the producer. There are a lot of permutation and combination. If I didn’t know it, I’d always blame the casting director. You then become negative and feel, ‘Why is he getting work? Oh they’re getting work because they’re doing this or that.’ I didn’t want to be that person,” he adds.
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Pavail says its surreal that he was part of the casting team of Anurag Kashyap’s Manmarziyaan and has now collaborated with him as an actor on Dobaaraa. He also helped in the casting of Queen and is now working with its director Vikas Bahl’s next, Goodbye.
“Back then I was a mere assistant and even though you’d spot these directors, you didn’t have the courage to speak to them. There were so many films I was a part of casting and now I am working with those directors, as an actor. It’s a beautiful, full circle.
“I’m happy, I’m in a good space. The struggle has been really long, it has been 12 years since I graduated film school. From there, I faced a lot of rejections, hits and misses… But the industry has been nice to me and very welcoming,” he adds.