Mumbai, early 2000s. A thin, soft-spoken graduate from FTII Pune is auditioning for anything that will have him. Chai budget tight. Hindi film industry mostly oblivious. His name is Pankaj Tripathi, and over the next two decades he’ll quietly become the most reliable character actor Indian cinema has produced since Naseeruddin Shah.
If you’re hunting a Pankaj Tripathi filmography complete list that actually ranks the roles rather than just lists them, you’re in the right place. Below is every performance worth knowing — the breakout, the sleepers, the National Award, and the five turns that defined a career.
From Belsand to Bollywood: the Pankaj Tripathi story
Born in Belsand, Bihar, Tripathi arrived in Mumbai after graduating from the Film and Television Institute of India in 2004. His first eight years looked thankless on paper — tiny roles in Run (2004), Omkara (2006), and a long run of blink-and-miss appearances in action potboilers. Then Anurag Kashyap cast him as Sultan Qureshi in Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). A butcher’s apprentice with a quiet menace. Everything changed.
Nearly a decade later, Mimi (2021) earned him the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor — the moment the industry finally stopped calling him a “character actor” and started writing leads for him. Today his filmography spans 60+ Hindi films and 15+ major web series. That’s a lot of ground to cover. So let’s cover it.
Pankaj Tripathi filmography complete list: the films
Here’s the chronological backbone — the Hindi films that defined his career from Run through Metro In Dino.
| Year | Film | Role | Director | Where to watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Run | Minor role | Jeetu Arora | Streaming archives |
| 2006 | Omkara | Kichlu | Vishal Bhardwaj | Hindi film channels |
| 2012 | Gangs of Wasseypur | Sultan Qureshi | Anurag Kashyap | OTT catalogues |
| 2015 | Masaan | Sadhyaji | Neeraj Ghaywan | Festival streams |
| 2017 | Newton | Loknath | Amit V Masurkar | Zee film channels |
| 2017 | Bareilly Ki Barfi | Narottam Mishra | Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari | Hindi comedy channels |
| 2017 | Fukrey Returns | Pandit Ji | Mrighdeep Lamba | Zee Cinema |
| 2018 | Stree | Rudra Bhaiya | Amar Kaushik | Horror comedy channels |
| 2021 | Mimi | Bhanu | Laxman Utekar | Streaming archive |
| 2022 | Sherdil: The Pilibhit Saga | Gangaram | Srijit Mukherji | Hindi film catalogue |
| 2023 | OMG 2 | Kanti Sharan Mudgal | Amit Rai | Star Gold |
| 2023 | Kadak Singh | Arun Kumar Shrivastav | Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury | Zee5 archive |
| 2024 | Stree 2 | Rudra Bhaiya | Amar Kaushik | Theatrical catalogue |
| 2026 | Metro In Dino | Shivan | Anurag Basu | Fresh releases |
That spread tells you everything. Comic uncle in Fukrey. Menacing warlord in Mirzapur. Grieving father in Kadak Singh. Few actors switch tonal registers this cleanly without breaking a sweat.
The web series that made him a household name
Film critics knew his name by 2015. The rest of India learned it on streaming.
- Mirzapur (2018–2024) — Kaleen Bhaiya across three seasons on Amazon Prime
- Sacred Games (2018) — Guruji, the cult leader with centre-parted hair
- Criminal Justice (2019–2024) — Advocate Madhav Mishra across three seasons on Hotstar
- Gurgaon (2017) — Kehri Singh, patriarch of a crumbling real-estate dynasty
- Mirzapur Season 3 (2024) — his most villainous turn yet, with Season 4 already greenlit
Kaleen Bhaiya is the role that cemented his streaming superstardom. The carpet-business don who ends every sentence with a smile and a threat. Mirzapur Season 3 arrived in 2024 and fans are already circling Criminal Justice Season 4 like vultures.
Madhav Mishra, by contrast, might be his quietly brilliant performance. The scruffy small-town lawyer who wins impossible cases through sheer patience. If you want the full landscape of streaming shows he’s featuring in next, our round-up of the Hindi web series 2026 list has Tripathi all over it.
Five career-defining performances, ranked
Not every great actor has five roles worth ranking. Tripathi has at least ten. These five are the pillars.
1. Kaleen Bhaiya — Mirzapur
The slow-burn menace that re-wrote how Indian OTT writes villains. He doesn’t shout. He almost whispers. And somehow the room goes colder every time he enters it.
2. Sultan Qureshi — Gangs of Wasseypur
The breakout. A butcher’s apprentice who turns enforcer. Kashyap gave him maybe twelve minutes of screen time across both parts. Tripathi made them unforgettable.
3. Madhav Mishra — Criminal Justice
The everyman lawyer in a rumpled kurta. He loses more than he wins, until he doesn’t. One of the few Hindi legal performances that actually feels like a working advocate rather than a courtroom monologue machine.
4. Bhaskor — Mimi
The comic heart of a surrogacy drama that could have collapsed into melodrama. Won him the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2021 — vindication for two decades of patient work.
5. Newton Kumar — Newton
Supporting role in a film India sent to the Academy’s shortlist. Quiet, political, dry as paper. Essential.
Where to watch Pankaj Tripathi films and shows free on VividTV
Hunting a specific Tripathi title tonight? Most of his catalogue sits across Hindi film channels and streaming archives — Zee Cinema runs Fukrey and Bareilly Ki Barfi on constant rotation, Star Gold cycles OMG 2 and Stree, and the big web series live on their original platforms.
VividTV pulls those Hindi film channels into one browser-based catalogue, so you don’t bounce between four tabs to find him. Browse the full on-demand series archive or jump straight into the Hindi movie channels — no sign-up, no app install, works worldwide on any browser.
If you came to Tripathi via Gangs of Wasseypur, you’ll also want our complete Manoj Bajpayee filmography guide and the Nawazuddin Siddiqui best picks list — same Kashyap-adjacent universe, same calibre of acting.
Quick facts the IMDb page won’t tell you
A few things even seasoned fans sometimes get wrong.
What was Pankaj Tripathi’s first film?
Run (2004), a Vijay Raaz-led thriller where Tripathi had a minor role. He’d worked in theatre and NSD-adjacent circles for years before, but Run was the Hindi film debut. Eight years of small parts followed — Omkara, Agneepath, Chittagong — before Gangs of Wasseypur gave him the role that opened every door.
How many films has Pankaj Tripathi done?
Over 60 Hindi films plus 15+ major web series as of 2026, with regional-language credits and short-film appearances pushing the total count north of 90. Few working actors move between film and streaming this fluidly, which is why his filmography reads like a map of modern Hindi cinema itself.
Which Pankaj Tripathi film won him a National Award?
Mimi (2021), directed by Laxman Utekar. He took home the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Bhanu, the driver-turned-reluctant-family-man. He has also collected two Filmfare OTT Awards for Mirzapur and Criminal Justice along the way.
Quick trivia — Tripathi graduated from FTII Pune in the class of 2004, worked as a hotel receptionist in Patna before acting school, and co-runs a restaurant in Mumbai with his wife Mridula.
Start streaming his best work tonight
If this is your first Tripathi binge, start with Mirzapur or Criminal Justice — both reward a weekend. Cinephiles should go straight to Gangs of Wasseypur, then Masaan, then Newton. The late-career swing of Mimi and Kadak Singh is for after you’ve seen the villain era.
Pick one. Press play. Start Watching Free on VividTV and queue up Kaleen Bhaiya before the carpet shop closes. Three Tripathi performances in, you’ll never watch a Hindi thriller the same way again.
