Piyush Mishra: Don’t know what went wrong with Shamshera, will be more careful in future

Piyush Mishra is one of the many veteran actors in the Indian film industry who are simply looking for good roles, irrespective of the length and budget of the project or the awards it can fetch him. Known for his peculiar way of dialogue delivery, Piyush is not just a brilliant actor but also a noted singer, lyricist, composer and screenwriter. Shamshera is one of his latest outing as a dialogue writer and lyricist of the song, Hunkara. Piyush is now back with yet another film, Kanjoos Makhichoos and made it clear that he said yes to it only because he liked the role. Also read: Shamshera is actually not that bad

In a candid chat with Hindustan Times after wrapping up a night shoot, a tired-looking Piyush said he tries to work at his own speed and comfort, with patience. He says he goes for only those roles which are different from each other.

In Kanjoos Makhichoos, Piyush plays the father of Kunal Kemmu’s character Jamuna Prasad Pandey, a hardened miser whose frugal ways of living give a headache to his family members. The film revolves around how Jamuna Prasad goes on to take the system head on after he becomes eligible for compensation in lieu of his missing parents but the corruption doesn’t allow him to avail the entire sum. Piyush says working on the film was “hectic” as it was shot on a tight schedule and the outdoor shoot was done in Haridwar.

He is all praise for director Vipul Mehta as like him, he too comes from a theatre background. “I relate with him a lot due to his connection with theatre. He is a big name in Gujarati theatre. He wrote the script in a theatre format and that’s why it had very interesting nuances. I enjoyed working with him as I take instructions like a kid on set,” he said.

Piyush agrees with the subject of the film and said, “There are so many formalities in taking a compensation that a person says that it’s okay even if I don’t get it. Bahut saari kadiya hoti hai, wo kadiya paar karte karte uski dum nikal jati hai (there are so many steps that the person collapses during the process). They think that its better to not get it all. The situation is very bad.”

On the work front, Piyush is in no race to bag more and bigger roles. On being asked if he wishes for more, he said, “It’s all fine, I don’t think much about all this. I do what I get, the only condition is I should like the role. I don’t think about awards. I only do good roles. I reject a lot of roles, there are so many scripts lying at my home. I love rejecting them and do only those which have some meat. There was meat in my Kanjoos Makhichoos and that’s why I did it.”

He is however not very sure of why the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Shamshera didn’t impress the critics or the audience. The film was directed by Karan Malhotra and had dialogues and song Hunkara by Piyush. On being asked about the same, he said, “I also didn’t understand why it didn’t work. People said it didn’t work due to the script. I think we have already seen fantastic stunts so many times. Now you will have to compete with them, the revolution in South. Baahubali was not merely CGI, it also had a very solid script. To compete with a Baahubali, you will have to write an equally brilliant script. Pushpa also had a very good script, it wasn’t made just like that. Adding CGI is only beneficial when you have a solid script, CGI without script is of no use.”

“I don’t know what went wrong with Shamshera but I will be more careful in future,” he added.

Piyush also makes it clear that it’s the screenplay that decides the quality of dialogues in a film. “I derive my inspiration only from the screenplay. Dialogues depend on the screenplay. It’s not possible to write dialogues for a bad screenplay, atleast for me it’s not possible,” he said.