'Jon Hamm is very humble and grounded'

Golden Globe-award winning actor Jon Hamm has got a new Indian fan in his co-star Pitobash Tripathy, who is making his Hollywood debut with sports drama Million Dollar Arm.

Odisha-born Pitobash, best known for his character roles in Shor In The City and
Shanghai, said it was great to work with the 'Mad Men' star in the movie.

“It was great to work with Jon Hamm. He is a global star but he is so humble and grounded. He is fun-loving but at the same time professional. It was a great opportunity to share screen space with him,” Pitobash told PTI.

Million Dollar Arm –which is hitting Indian screens on May 9, a week ahead of its US release – is an upcoming biographical sports film based on the true story of baseball pitchers Rinku Singh (Suraj Sharma) and Dinesh Patel (Madhur Mittal) who were discovered by sports agent JB Bernstein after winning a reality show competition of the same name.

In the film, Pitobash, 30, plays the local assistant who helped Bernstein (played by Hamm) to get in touch with Indian cricketers. He later travels to the US as the interpreter of Indian players.

"Playing a real life character was a challenge. This is the first time I am playing a
character which is inspired by a real person, Dipesh Solanki. I met him personally and
chatted with him. It was difficult to learn his reactions," Pitobash said.

The film, which was shot in Mumbai, Lucknow, Agra and US, is directed by Craig Gillespie and produced by Joe Roth, Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray for Walt Disney Pictures. Being a part of the film was not a cakewalk for the engineering graduate as he had to go for three-month-long auditions.

"My international stint was not planned. I got a call in early 2013 from my casting
director for an audition, which took two and half months and I finally got selected for it. I am taking one step at a time in my career.

"I did engineering but I always wanted to be an actor. I have been in the industry for almost five-six years but films like Shor in the City and Shanghai paved way to get good roles," he said.

Pitobash's family is looking forward to watch him in the Hollywood film. His mother
is a retired school teacher and his father worked for the agriculture department.

The actor is the youngest among his three brothers and two sisters.

"They are very happy to see the trailer of the film. My father’s jokes that now he has to pay money to see me. My family has supported me in a big way as it was tough call to
pursue my dream of becoming an actor.”