Pankaj Tripathi, a critically regarded actor, comes from a middle-class background. The actor has come a long way since beginning his career in tiny roles in Hindi cinema to become the face of businesses and big-budget blockbusters today. Many people are unaware that Pankaj was offered the character of Subedar Kuldeep Singh in Hrithik Roshan’s Lakshya in his early days (2004). The information was also published in the newspaper. His part, however, was deleted from the final cut.

Pankaj has frankly discussed his experience of working with Hrithik in Lakshya in a 2019 interview with The Indian Express. “I’ll tell you about something interesting.” Around the same time, I also did Lakshya. It was for Lakshya that I originally auditioned. Subedar Kuldeep Singh was the character I was cast to play. I first visited Leh-Ladakh during the filming of the film. I was in Patna before the film’s release.

I casually stated that I was a part of it to one of my media contacts there. He became enthralled and demanded more information. I told him about my part and the scenes I had with Hrithik (Roshan). The next day, the Hindustan newspaper in Patna published an article with the heading “Lakshya mein dikhega Bihar ka laal” and a small photograph of me.”

Continuing, he said, “Then, with my wife, I went to see Lakshya at the Ashok film hall. I was nowhere to be found when the movie ended. Not because I had been cut out, but because this news had already been published in the newspaper, my misery multiplied. I was quite tense. I wouldn’t have felt so much pressure if the news hadn’t been leaked. I figured that anyone who reads it will assume I’m a liar because I work in a medium where we have fake sons, false mothers, fake relationships, phoney stories… But I do my best to make it appear realistic.”

Years later, Pankaj reunited with Hrithik in the films Agneepath and Super 30. “Farhan Akhtar was never asked about it. Hrithik and I had a brief discussion about it while working on Super 30. Hrithik wanted to know if Super 30 was our second or third film. He could only recall Agneepath. I also reminded him of Lakshya “he said finally.