Panchayat’s new season is currently streaming on Prime Video and its cast is back in the spotlight. Among the many actors in the series who made a mark for themselves, one actor is Durgesh Kumar. Hailing from Bihar’s Darbhanga, the actor has played the role of Bhushan in the Jitendra Kumar and Neena Gupta starrer series. Now popular as ‘banrakas’, fame didn’t come easy to Durgesh. Talking about the struggles in the industry, the actor revealed he fell into depression twice while trying to make it big in the industry.
In an interview with Lallantop, Durgesh Kumar said, “You need to be prepared psychologically, physically, mentally, emotionally and economically to be an actor. I have suffered depression twice in 11 years. Unless you are not psychologically, economically and mentally healthy, please don’t come in the acting field. I am being brutally honest about it.”
Durgesh warned youngsters who are unaware of the industry and wanting to pursue career in films. He said, “This is no place to try. This place is filled with crazy people. All the successful people you see today, including Manoj Bajpayee and Pankaj Tripahti, who were my seniors at the National School of Drama or even Nawazuddin Siddiqui, they are all half crazy people, nobody discloses this.”
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“Alone Pankaj Tripathi’s batch had 20 people. All of them equally talented, but do you see them anywhere? Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s batch had around 30 people, other than Nawazuddin, the only person who made his name in the industry is Nirmal Das, who got a role in Sarfarosh. Later, that man went crazy and is dead today. Nobody is aware of it. Do you see the struggle here? You really need to be mentally strong. If you are not, I request you, please never come to Bombay,” said the actor.
He further recalled, how despite of having acting in films like Highway, Sultan and Freaky Ali, he still had to fall on the feet of casting directors to bag a role.
He recalled, “When I first came to Versova on May 28, 2016, I made a few friends from Madhya Pradesh Drama School. We decided to get into the industry at any cost. We found Neeraj Singh and Gaurav Singh of Prithvi, we made Aram Nagar our adda. We started to knock doors of every casting director, I fell on their feet to cast me in some role. All this, after having done Highway, Freaky Ali, and Sultan.”
“My friends started to abuse me for falling on people’s feet. I said, ‘at any cost, I want to crack this.’ This is the kind of struggle and dedication it takes to survive in the industry. It feels embarrassing to go out for random auditions after having worked in films, especially after the casting directors recognise you. I just had one day’s role in Panchayat season 1. I shot for just 2.5 hours. I am really thankful to Chandan Kumar and Deepak Kumar Mishra who wrote the ‘Banrakas’ role. I am glad. I am not Irrfan, Nawazuddin, I am an average actor with survival instinct in me.”
Durgesh Kumar, whose first film was Imtiaz Ali’s 2014 film Highway starring Randeep Hooda and Alia Bhatt in the lead roles, was forced to act in soft porn for survival.
According to DNA, Durgesh failed in every audition he gave from 2013-22. “Casting directors would say that you have talent but auditions are not working.” For money, the actor starred in soft porn. He said, “I can’t live without acting. I did any work that came my way because I was confident in my abilities.”
Durgesh, who was also seen in the films Laapataa Ladies and Bhakshak lately, had comparatively more screen time in Panchayat season 2, in which his character was introduced as ‘Banrakas’.
After Panchayat’s fame, Durgesh claims, now she has been getting work. “Nobody takes us in the maar-dhaad wale shows (action genre). At least with comedy, we get these chances so it feels very good,” said the Panchayat star.
Panchayat also stars Raghubir Yadav, Chandan Roy, Faisal Malik, and Ashok Pathak, among others.
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