'I' m only concentrating on films' : Mukesh Tyagi

It' s never to late to chase your dreams; at least that' s what Meerut (UP) based actor Mukesh Tyagi thinks. Happy with his short stints in ' Page 3' , ' Corporate' or now ' Jail' , the actor told India Blooms correspondent Sreya Basu that he now wants to concentrate only on films. Excerpts

So far all the films that you' ve done are mostly directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. Any specific reason for that?
Madhur is a very dear friend of mine and when he was looking for the character ' Member of Parliament' , he offered me the role and thus my journey of acting in Bollywood started with Madhur. After that I acted in films like ' Corporate' , ' Dil se pooch kidhar jaana hai' , ' Traffic Signal' , ' Pranali' , ' Fashion' and ' Jail' .

Have you acted in any other film before ' Page 3' ?
No, I always used to take part in school and college drama competitions as I was extremely passionate about acting right since childhood. But after I completed my studies, I went for a MBA in USA then I worked at a very high designation in a few MNCs. My last job was at Punj Lloyd where I was working at a very senior level position but I left it and started pursuing my acting career in a full-fledged manner. Now I' m only concentrating on films.

You play Neil Nitin Mukesh' s boss in ' Jail' …
It' s a very interesting character.

But, so far you have been offered short stints. Are you happy with that or think you need more elaborate character-based roles?
I don' t think one should judge a character by the length of its screen-presence. I am happy with the roles I am getting…they may be ' short stints' but are vital ones.

What kind of roles you want to do in future?
I want to do both serious and comedy roles.

Which actor is your role model?
I admire actors like Anupam Kher, Paresh Rawal, Amrish Puri and Kadar Khan from Bollywood. From Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin influenced me a lot.

We' ve heard that you' ve even sung songs in one of your films? Is it true?
Yes, I sang a Gazal ' Kya hota hai' written by Nida Fazli in the film ' Dil se pooch kidhar jaana hai?'

What' s your next film after ' Jail' ?
I' ll be doing a couple of films which will be released in 2010.

--IBNS