Pankaj Tripathi on winning the National award for 'Mimi: 'If my father was around, he would've been really happy for me'

Pankaj Tripathi won the Best supporting actor award for his performance in ‘ _Mimi_’ at the 69th National Film Awards. He gave a statement where he remembered his late father who passed away very recently. The statement read- “This is unfortunately a period of loss and grieving for me. If Babuji was around, he would have been really happy for me. When I first got the National award mention, he was very proud and pleased. This National Award I dedicate to him and his spirit. I’m who I’m today because of him. I’m in loss of words due to this time but I’m happy and grateful to the team. Kriti also has won the Best Actress, so a huge congratulations to her.” Recently, in an interview with Firstpost, the actor spoke about his journey as an actor and said, “The journey is the same. Every choti Ganga goes through its share of difficulties in surviving. It takes a lot of curves and turns and ultimately has to meet its destination, so the journey has been interesting. I didn’t anticipate the day that I’ll be playing main leads after starting with 1 or 2 scenes; it has been an unexpected journey that shows you should continue working in life with sincerity and passion, anything can happen.” He added, “I came to Mumbai in October 2004 and till 2012, I didn’t even see a film camera. To be able to stay and survive in a city like Mumbai for eight years! There was something, some force that was stopping me here. I have a working wife so survival wasn’t difficult, but I didn’t realize all these things back then.”