Dragan Petrovic Pele: I Gave More as a Professor
The actor told Kurir, in an interview given at the NAFFIT festival in Zlatibor, for the first time why he left the Faculty of Dramatic Arts and how he spends his retirement.
Dragan Petrovic Pele spoke for the first time about why he left the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, in an interview with Kurir published on Sunday, September 6, 2026. The conversation took place at the National Festival of Film and Television (NAFFIT) in Zlatibor, where the actor is a member of this year’s jury.
Why He Left the Faculty
Asked whether he misses working at the university, Pele did not hesitate.
“No. I felt it was time to step aside and let the younger ones take over.”
He explains that the reason was fatigue, not conflict with colleagues or dissatisfaction with the state of the department.
“I was a bit burned out. That job demands that a person give the whole of themselves. You can’t give students half of yourself, or a quarter. If you can’t be fully committed, that’s not good for them or for you. It always mattered to me to give everything I had,” the actor told Kurir.
He adds that, in his own mind, working with students ranks above acting itself.
“I gave and did more as a professor than as an actor. I put more energy, love and myself into working with students than into any other job.”
Pele taught at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts for decades, and his former students include Vucic Perovic and Jovana Stojiljkovic, actors who are now winning awards and speak publicly about how much he meant to them as a professor. He says that pleases him, and that he loves all his students equally, both those already winning awards and those still coming up.
What Retirement Looks Like
Away from acting and the university, Pele says he has found peace in gardening.
“I catch myself staring at a tree for hours. I need to recover and slow down a little. I have a lot of interests that have nothing to do with acting.”
Asked what fulfills him most these days, he answers in one word, then expands on it.
“Nature. Trees, flowers, horticulture. Planting something and waiting for it to grow. That genuinely makes me happy. Of course, if someone calls me to shoot something, I’ll gladly accept, but if they don’t call, I have no problem with that either. Life isn’t only about the stage.”
Asked directly whether he has any new acting offers, Pele is candid.
“There aren’t any right now, and I think that’s perfectly fine. I’m not someone who chases work. I love working, but I’m not greedy for engagements,” the actor said in the same interview.
New Projects Are Not Off the Table
Even though he isn’t chasing roles, Pele hasn’t disappeared from view entirely. He worked on the series “Tunel,” and also shot “Linija” with Dragana Elcic. There has also been talk of a new theater production with Boda Ninkovic, though he says that idea is still taking shape.
“We’re already old and slow. The idea exists, but it’s still maturing. The time hasn’t come yet to make it happen. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. You never know,” Pele said of a possible collaboration with Ninkovic.
As a jury member in Zlatibor, Pele also spoke about colleagues from the older generation. Alongside an exhibition dedicated to Pavle Vuisic, opened as part of NAFFIT’s accompanying program, the actor described Vuisic as a complete and complex personality, full of positive energy, and counted him among the greatest names of Serbian film. That list, he says, also includes Ljuba Tadic, Velimir Bata Zivojinovic, Gaga Nikolic and Bora Todorovic.
Alongside acting and teaching, Pele is also the father of Jakov Petrovic, who now heads the Film Center Serbia. He says he doesn’t give his son advice, since he is a grown man who makes his own decisions, and that he is glad his son chose production rather than acting.
Srpske novine reported on the NAFFIT festival itself earlier this summer, when the film “Tvrdjava” won seven awards. Pele’s interview now continues that coverage from a different angle: that of a juror assessing the festival from the inside.
