Ek villain ke liye gaaliyaan hi taaliyaan hoti hain, says Parag Tyagi

While many actors stay away from playing back-to-back negative roles owing to the fear of being typecast, Parag Tyagi is on a mission to set a mark for himself by portraying grey characters, be it in Kaala Teeka, Brahmarakshas, Aghori or Shakti - Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki. And because of this, many people associate his reel life image with his real life.

“I get a lot of hate messages. Mujhe lagta hai ki ek villain ke liye gaaliyaan hi taaliyaan hoti hain. I’m happy that my performance is so convincing that people think I’m a bad man in real life as well,” Tyagi says.

Recalling the time when people pulled him up in public, he says, “When I did Pavitra Rishta, though the role wasn’t completely negative, it did leave an impression. I remember Pari (his wife, actor Shefali Jariwala) and I had gone to the beach for Ganpati Visarjan, and a group of women cursed at me, saying, ‘How can you throw your wife out of the house? How can you behave like this with your own mother and wife?’ They even asked Pari, ‘Does this man behave with you badly, too?’ Something similar happened when I was in Udaipur to shoot for Jodha Akbar, and I kept telling them that I’m not like this in real life.”

Ask him why he’s taking up so many negative roles, and the 44-year-old says, “I consider [late actor] Amrish Puri sir to be my idol, and I aspire to be the biggest villain in the industry. Negative roles have their own charm as you get to explore and experiment with the complexities.”

However, the A Wednesday (2008) and Sarkar 3 (2017) actor has not closed the door for positive roles. He will next be seen in a positive role in the web series Paper, based on Telgi scam. “If a strong positive role comes my way, I’d love to take it up. In fact, in Paper, I’ll be playing a cop, who solves the entire case,” he says.

Sangeeta Yadav