From engineering to acting: Nilay Mitash talks about Hello… Hum Bol Rahe Hain
Nilay Mitash was once an engineer at an MNC until he realised that his passion lay elsewhere. Behind the screens, in front of the cameras, with a script in hand and some solid performances to deliver. From Infosys to theatre and now his first lead role, Nilay has taken quite the unconventional route to acting. The actor talks to us about Hello… Hum Bol Rahe Hain, preparing for his first lead role, his journey from engineering to acting, favourite things about Bengaluru and much more.
Tell us more about Hello… Hum Bol Rahe Hain. What about the script made you like the web series and want to be part of it?
Hello... Hum Bol Rahe Hain — that’s what many people say as the first line when they call someone in Bihar. It always puts a smile on my face when I hear it. There is a certain pride in that line, it comes from innocence. And because the story is set in a rural Bihar setting, I felt the title captured the world of the series beautifully. At the centre of it is my character — Pappu Prasad Pandey. Pappu and his friends — Pawan and Pintu — spend their days doing what they proudly consider hard labour — sitting at a chai stall and doing absolutely nothing. One night, an argument starts when Pappu’s friends tease him about not having a girl in his life. As things heat up, Pawan promises him that he will find a ‘bhabhi’ for the group. A master plan is made: Pappu gets a list of 100 girls’ phone numbers and is supposed to call them one by one, believing that somewhere among those calls he will find his true love.
What do you hope they will take away after watching the series?
More than anything, I just want people to have fun while watching this story. I hope they have a smile on their faces while watching the innocent love story of Pappu and Pakhi. I hope they laugh out loud at Pappu and his friends’ antics. And I hope that somewhere along the way, they connect with Pappu — because beneath all the comedy, politics and romance, he is a very innocent person trying to understand life as it comes to him.
We heard you worked as an engineer? Tell us more about that life prior to becoming an actor, how did this shift happen?
I am an engineer by education. I completed my engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology and joined Infosys in Bengaluru. And honestly, I had absolutely no intention of leaving it all behind and becoming an actor. For someone raised in a middle-class family, becoming a ‘hero’ was fiction, not fact. Then life happened. I lost my mother to cancer. A few months later, I joined an improv theatre group in Bengaluru — Yours Truly Theatre — initially just as a hobby. And something started changing inside me. Playing different characters, researching them and living their lives gave me something I had not felt in a long time — something to look forward to every day. One day, while travelling to work in an auto-rickshaw, I was thinking about whether pursuing acting was simply too risky. It was raining. The roads were slippery. Suddenly, the auto screeched, skidded, jumped over a divider and flipped upside down. I was unconscious for a while. When I regained consciousness, there was blood everywhere. Thankfully, it wasn’t mine. It was the driver’s. And something changed in me that day. Risk suddenly had a completely different meaning. So, that very day, I resigned from Infosys.
For someone out there, aspiring to pursue the arts, acting or any other passion but feels stuck within the corporate rat race, what advice do you have for them?
Well... this may sound slightly ironic coming from someone like me who is a die-hard romantic, but please don’t romanticise the idea of leaving everything behind before you actually do it. If you are considering leaving a corporate career to pursue the arts, do not romanticise the transition. Instead, approach the decision with the same logic you would use in a corporate environment. It is essential to distinguish between the personal fulfillment of creating art and the reality of entering the ‘business of art,’ which involves its own competitive and often challenging industry. Ultimately, only take the leap if, after objectively evaluating the potential costs and uncertainties, you remain certain that this is the life you truly want to pursue.
Hello... Hum Bol Rahe Hain is streaming on WAVES OTT.
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