In Chandigarh, actor-singer Piyush Mishra says ‘indicators’ in life should be understood well in time

Sheetal

Actor, writer, singer, poet and music director, Piyush Mishra is a one-man team! In City Beautiful, to initiate his all-India tour, Ballimaaraan —The Piyush Mishra’s Musical Project, he had packed all things necessary to brave the weather for an open-courtyard show at Nexus Elante Mall on Saturday.

“I have always liked doing things in a disorderly manner. I did tedha cinema, jis mein paaaglon wali mehnat hai. mAine disordered creativity ka swad chakh liya tha, so expect nothing else from me. The same way, I have written all my songs in Mandi House. I don’t need solitude to write, but chaos.”

His connection with Chandigarh is really special. Although The ‘Ballimaaraan’ band didn’t originate in Chandigarh, but the root cause has been this place or rather a person from Chandigarh, Nishant Agarwal, who is now the lead guitarist of his performing team. Piyush shares, “It was him (Nishant) who had this idea of making a band and performing my compositions for the live audience. He continued to pester me when I was in Delhi doing theatre and even followed me to Mumbai when I pursued acting in films. So, what started in 2015-2016 with him, percussionist Jayant Patnaik (also from Punjab) and I, has grown into a set-up similar to Coke Studio, which itself is quite a journey.”

Maternal home

He also clarifies it was coincidental that the tour’s aarambh is happening from City Beautiful and it is supposed to travel to 39 more cities. However, he feels personally attached to the city for it’s his maternal home, and due to his close association with faculty and students of Department of Indian Theatre at Panjab University.

Mishra hasn’t taken a dayoff in the past 40 years, which is no surprise, for the amount of work he has presented to his fans and followers in the form of poetry, films, songs and more, is remarkable.

As he celebrates his 60th birthday on Lohri (Friday), he speaks on how he has started enjoying family life, sitting down with wife or talking with his pet dog. And whether staying busy has helped him stay grounded and not take his success seriously? The actor leaves it to be answered by how he is perceived by the masses much like his upcoming autobiographical-novel, Tumhari Aukaat Kya Hai Piyush Mishra?, which will be releasing on February 10. In the book, he is not just narrating his life’s journey, flaws and incidents, but also puts forth the question of identity.

No preaching

On what led him to lead a better life away from his alcohol addiction, he doesn’t preach to be perfect. “It’s all about small indicators that pop up in your mind or by people around you; it’s always your choice whether to accept or reject. I accepted that I would die if I continued to drink away my life and rectified it, the same way I have included Vipasna in my life and I have been feeling the difference. We all lead an unconventional life, my story is unique for I am the main character of my story.”

No social media

At the same time, Mishra addresses the current addiction of ‘having a say’, thanks to social media! “I am nothing for you if I can be trolled or put down for a comment or anything I do, but I refused to be reduced to that and thus I stay away from social media. What people say about me doesn’t reach me. Even if it does, I do not care. Having said that, it’s because of social media that people can access my poems, my lectures and more, so I am thankful that there’s a medium to reach out to the masses,” he explains.

The actor had recently shot for Indian 2 with Kamal Haasan and is awaiting the release of Illegal Season 3.