When I got work in a film, I was fired from my repertory job: After ‘Highway’, I did not get work for three years, Durgesh said- Casting directors did not trust me

After playing small roles in films like ‘Why Cheat India’, ‘Sultan’, ‘Sanju’ and ‘Dil Bechara’, actor Durgesh Kumar gained immense popularity through the Panchayat series. In this, the character of Bhushan aka Banarakas became so popular that many memes were made of it. Panchayat Season 3 is going to stream on Prime Video from May 28. Recently, Durgesh Kumar told Dainik Bhaskar during a conversation that he did not want to become an actor. He did theatre for personality development. When he got work in Imtiaz Ali’s film ‘Highway’, he was fired from the repertory job. How did you get associated with the Panchayat series and how did your character progress? Assistant casting director of this series Navneet Raga had first called me for the role of a photographer. But the role of the photographer was given to someone else and I was given a scene of piles in the first season. When the second season was about to start, the character of Vinod was being introduced. Mahadev Lakhawat was preparing the audition for this character and I was helping him in the audition. Chief Casting Director Gulshan Ji told that why are you helping someone, you have got a big role. I shot for 20 days for the second season. Now the third season is about to come, this time the character is very interesting. Now the expectations of the audience must have increased even more. How much preparation did you have to do for the character now? I believe a lot in the writer. The writer of this show Chandan Kumar is the best writer. He gives a graph in the script, which you just have to follow. You have to be natural. This is our task. The director of the show Deepak Mishra always suggests that you do natural acting. Don’t suddenly start speaking pure Hindi. Because even today pure Hindi is not spoken in our rural areas. Such things have to be taken care of. This was about your character, Durgesh Kumar, that is, when did you feel that you have to come to this Mayanagari? I never wanted to become an actor. My father Dr. Harikrishna Chaudhary has been a professor of commerce in CM Art College, Bihar Darbhanga. I studied Intermediate in Science Mathematics from CM Science College, Darbhanga. Meanwhile, my elder brother Dr. Shivshakti Chaudhary had come to Delhi to prepare for UPSC. I came to Delhi on 9 December 2001 after giving my intermediate examination. Everyone in my house is shy. If my father lends money to someone, he has a problem in asking for it back. My brother and I also had the same behaviour. My brother made me join theatre for personality development, so that I could speak. If you have to survive in society, you have to be a little devious. During theatre, you developed an inclination towards acting and then thought of making a career in films? You had never thought of acting in films. I kept doing theatre in Delhi and after completing my graduation, I joined NSD in 2008. After that, I got a job as a repertory artist in NSD itself. It is a six-year job. You get to do new plays every day. You become quite strong in it. I never thought that I would go to Mumbai and do acting. I thought that after the repertory job, I would teach in some theatre in Gurugram or Delhi. During this time, one of my friends Akash Bardas called me for audition for director Rajkumar Hirani’s film ‘PK’. That means your acting career in films started with director Rajkumar Hirani’s film ‘PK’? No, I was not selected in ‘PK’. For that film, I had auditioned for the scene where I snatched the locket. But I was too young for that role. That role was given to Rajendra Singh Nanu, who was senior to me in theatre. Meanwhile, I was selected for Imtiaz Ali’s film ‘Highway’. For this film, I shot for 45 days from Gurugram to Jammu and Kashmir. Due to working in this film, I was expelled from the repertory. Now there was nothing left for me in Delhi. My brother suggested that you have already done theatre and films, now go to Mumbai and try for acting. I came to Mumbai on 7 November 2013. But why were you expelled from the repertory? National School of Drama is a very pure institute. It has its own rules and regulations. A person does only acting for 365 days. The government pays you for three years in repertory. If you do a film during that time, it becomes an indiscipline. That’s why I was fired. I respect this. But I felt bad at that time because a government job was lost. Well, when you came to Mumbai, how much did you benefit from working in theatre and Imtiaz Ali’s film ‘Highway’? After coming to Mumbai, I was not that active for three years. My first film ‘Highway’ was released on 21 February 2014. People praised it a lot. My work was appreciated a lot. But the casting directors were not able to trust me that much. I kept meeting all the big casting directors. In 2016, casting director Mukesh Chhabra cast me in a small role for director Sohail Khan’s film ‘Freaky Ali’. During the same time, I got Yash Raj Films’ ‘Sultan’, in which I had a commentary role. In this way, the series gradually moved forward. After coming to Mumbai from Delhi, when there was no work for three years, how did you survive during that time? I had the money for repertory. Well, I will tell you honestly that I am not from a poor family. My father Dr. Harikrishna Chaudhary has been a professor of commerce in CM Art College, Darbhanga, Bihar. My brother is a chemistry teacher. My financial condition has never been bad, but when there is no work, there is tension. People in the industry have a different view about actors coming from outside. Have you ever faced such a problem? We have not gone to that circle yet. We are at a very low level right now. I have never faced all this. I understand only one thing that you should keep practicing. If you keep practicing, the audition will be good. If you do not practice, you will not get a good audition. You will get good work with good auditions. I got three big works in my life. Panchayat, Shahrukh Khan’s production film Bhakshak and Aamir Khan’s production ‘Laapta Ladies’. Today all the big casting directors give me work.

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