Started acting to overcome inferiority complex: Piyush Mishra

He is widely regarded for his path-breaking performances in both theater and films, but actor Piyush Mishra says he chose acting as profession to overcome the inferiority complex.

Piyush said there was a time when nobody paid attention to him and it was only when he did the role of a prince in a play, that he realised the power of the craft.

"I think I became what I am not through acting. I did a princely role in 1979. I was from a lower middle-class family. I was filled with inferiority complex, was very introvert. Everybody refused to look at me, girls used to never give me attention. But when I performed, I thought I am ruling the world. In those two-and-half hours, I was saying laugh, people were laughing, I was saying cry, people were crying. I was amazed and said to myself this is a wonderful art," Piyush said in Mumbai recently.

The 53-year-old artiste graduated from National School of Drama, Delhi in 1986 and then established himself as a theatre director, actor, lyricist and singer over next decade. It was in 2002; when he shifted to Mumbai and went on to receive acclaim for his acting in films like ‘Maqbool’, ‘Gulaal’, ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ and the recent hit ‘Pink’.

Piyush said he spent initial years in search of what he truly wants to do in life, until the acting bug bit him.

"Before that (doing the play) I was a painter, I also played sitar in a troupe for four years but I longed for inner satisfaction, so in 1979 I just did the play and I thought I am the boss. The art of acting came to me out of my complex," he said.