When Pankaj Tripathi travels to Australia this month to receive his first international honour as “Artist of Distinction” honour at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) 2026. He will attend the festival in Victoria, Australia, to accept the award in person at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre on August 13, 2026. It will mark another milestone in a career that has rewritten the rules of stardom. For the actor, however, the recognition isn’t just personal. He regards it as an indication that tales born on Indian soil can travel continents.
Reflecting on the journey, Tripathi says he often marvels at where life has taken him. “I feel good. Life is such an interesting journey. I was born in a place where there was no electricity. From there, to travel across the seven seas… the biggest contribution in this journey is not mine, but my art form. I’ve been practising this art for over 20 years. God gave me that opportunity, directors and producers trusted me, and I became part of stories that travelled from India to the world. People watched them there, recognised them and appreciated them. It is an honour. I feel very proud.
A still from ‘Stree 2’. Pics/Youtube, By Special Arrangement
Tripathi believes the global rise of Indian storytelling is not solely an OTT phenomenon. Streaming may have made films easier to access, but audiences stay only if the stories resonate. “OTT has made content democratic. We now have the remote in our own hands and can choose what we want to watch. But access alone isn’t enough. The world is asking for both kinds of Indian stories. They enjoy our rooted stories as well as our commercial cinema. Our films have songs, dance and a different cultural rhythm that many other cinemas don’t. Both forms can coexist on the global stage.”
The actor has experienced that international reach first-hand. What surprised him most wasn’t the growing South Asian diaspora embracing his work, but viewers with no cultural connection to India responding to the nuances of his performances. “Two reviewers in the US, Nick and Corwin, used to discuss my performances in such detail. They even interviewed me. I kept wondering how these small Indian nuances were reaching them. Then I realised that performing art goes beyond language. Cinema is a visual medium. You may not understand every word, but you understand the mannerisms, the posture and the internal effort of an actor.”
He recalls another moment that reaffirmed the universality of storytelling. “Last year I was walking on a street in New York and thought very few people would recognise me here. A foreign family, I think from South America, came up to me. They recognised me. We often believe our global audience is only of Indian or Asian origin, but I realised it has gone much beyond that. Our films are dubbed and subtitled in different languages, and people everywhere are watching them.”
Back home, Tripathi is equally hopeful about the future of acting as a profession. With the National School of Drama set to open a Mumbai campus, he hopes formal training will continue to matter in an industry increasingly obsessed with social media metrics. “Learning the craft of acting is important. Influencers create content from their own minds and many of them do it very well. But acting is different. The content isn’t yours. Someone else writes it and you have to become another person. Content creators usually play versions of themselves, so there can be limitations. That’s why learning the craft, whether at NSD or anywhere else, is important.”
He also dismisses the perception that follower counts dictate casting decisions. “I once asked one of the heads of Amazon whether followers really mattered. He told me that isn’t true. What matters is whether the actor is right for the role. Marketing teams may think about followers because it helps with reach, but art and follower counts have nothing to do with each other. I don’t see that connection.”