Pankaj recalls eating insects

Mumbai: Actor Pankaj Tripathi, in a recent interview, reminisced of his childhood in Bihar’s Belsand.

The Mirzapur actor disclosed that in his earlier days, he wanted to learn swimming.
“We had a river behind our house. The river water has small black insects swimming on top of it. So, the kids in the village, they are very naughty, they told me that if I drink these insects, I will learn swimming. So, I picked up 10-12 of those insects and drank them with the water. I am thankful that my stomach didn’t get upset.”

In the same interview, Pankaj discussed the change in his surname. He said, “It must be the first time in history that a father got a name from his son. I was filling the admit card of 10th standard. My uncle would use the surname Tripathi and he had become an officer in the government. There was also one Baba who had Tripathi surname, he became a professor of Hindi. Those who had my surname, Tiwari, they all were either priests or were doing farming. So, I thought this is because of the surname. I didn’t want to become farmer or a priest. So I wrote my name as Tripathi in the form. But then I thought I can’t write my father’s name as Tiwari in the form as it might get rejected. So I changed his name too.”

On the film front, he will be soon seen in Main Atal Hoon. The film is slated to release on January 19, 2024.