Cinema is to Piyush Mishra what manual labour is to a mason a livelihood. His heart, however, is in theatre. “Cinema never became my passion. I am not somebody who is mad for cinema,” he says, adding, “But, actors should do theatre only when they have earned enough money.”Despite the reluctance, Mishra, who has reprised his role in the third season of the courtroom drama Illegal, has a three-decade-long film career with over 40 projects to boast of, with the most popular ones being Maqbool, Rockstar, Gangs of Wasseypur, Gulal, Pink and Tamasha.Talking about the latest season of the show co-starring Neha Sharma, Akshay Oberoi, Satyadeep Mishra and Neil Bhoopalam, he says, “When you get such a pivotal role, you can’t refuse it. It is a show with a lot of twists. The incidents are inspired by real events, and this season has no dull moments.” “I had been telling the director to give my otherwise manipulative character a moment to cry, and bring in a little vulnerability… That has been done in the new season. It has given more depth to the character,” he added.Born and raised in Gwalior, Mishra was drawn to theatre and writing when he was a teenager. “I used to read a lot of literary works in Hindi and Urdu. Sahir Ludhianvi, Kaifi Azmi, Harivansh Rai Bachchan… I had read it all when I was very young. I don’t know how, but I used to create a lot of stories,” says Mishra. Soon after, he moved to Delhi, and following his graduation from the National School of Drama (NSD), the actor started his career as a thespian. He launched the theatre group Act One, where he collaborated with other artistes such as Manoj Bajpayee, Gajraj Rao and Ashish Vidyarthi.
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