Mumbai: Seeing his father on sets made him fall in love with acting, although it took him a while to realise it, said Hiten Paintal, son of veteran actor and comedian Kanwarjit Paintal, better known as just Paintal.
“I share a great relationship with my father. We are very close to each other and are like friends. Like any father and son, we do have our share of arguments but that happens in every family. We share and discuss everything and joke around a lot. There are times when we tell stories about the past and how things used to be back in the day,” said Hiten, who was last seen in ‘Muskurane Ki Wajah Tum Ho’ and film ’30 minutes’.
Talking about the legacy of his father, Hiten said: “He has a huge body of work. He has done films and television also. He wasn’t very instrumental in me becoming an actor but from childhood I have seen him on television so it was a very normal thing for me. I went to shoots with him when I was younger whenever I didn’t have school. I didn’t want to become an actor as I was doing animation and graphics but destiny had different plans.”
“My uncle, who owns an acting institute, told me to join just for personality development. Within the first two weeks, I realised that I want to be an actor. Seeing my dad all the time did warm me up towards the profession.”
For Hiten, his father is his inspiration. “Every son considers his father as a role model no matter which profession he is in. For the world, he is a different person but at home he is my father. He is a wonderful man. If I could be 10 per cent of him then I would consider myself very lucky,” he said.
Coming from a family of actors, the audience expects a lot more out of you, says Hiten, adding: “When you are from a family of actors, there is no pressure as such internally as much as there is externally. I have noticed that pressure is built by the audiences. It’s not necessary that a son should be like his father when he is an actor. But in our industry people judge so much. It has happened to me where people have said that ‘Yeh Paintal ka beta hai, ye toh comedy karega'(He is Paintal’s, he will do comedy).”
“Why am I being judged and why do people have preconceived notions? The pressure to succeed is something else and it is in your hands big success in this industry is purely on your luck and destiny. There are some brilliant actors who are sitting at home and do not have work and some actors are just at the top of the game for no reason and are super successful. It’s high time we change our thought process.”
Meanwhile, Hiten considers himself lucky to have shared the screen with his father multiple times. “I did get an opportunity to act with my father. In 2001 we did Ssshhhh… Koi Hai, the episode name was Bhediya and we shot in Mussoorie. That was the first time I faced the camera with my father. Later in 2015, my film called ’30 minutes’, he played my father again. I definitely want bigger and better opportunities where there is a lot more and we both can be in front of the camera,” he said.
–IANS
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