BHUBANESWAR: The struggle to set foot in Bollywood and settling for one-scene roles for remaining relevant in the industry, actors Faisal Malik aka Prahlad Cha from ‘Panchayat’ and Durgesh Kumar, who is now popular as the hilarious Banrakas from the hit web series, have had their share of ups and downs. Yet both the actors admit Bollywood is and will always be their first love.
Sharing interesting anecdotes from their journey as actors and Panchayat in particular at the session ‘Postcards from Phulera: The Village as Muse’, Faisal and Durgesh said there is no joy in stardom without having to go through struggle.
An NSD alumnus, Durgesh is an ardent follower of Manoj Bajpayee and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. “Because, I believe if you follow one good actor, you will reach somewhere,” says the actor. “Like Nawazuddin, I did one or two scenes in every film that was offered to me for 12 years. Then, I got an offer from Deepak Mishra (Panchayat director) and the rest is history.”
Faisal, on the other hand, said except for the job of a spot boy, he has done every work in Bollywood. “If you love this industry, you need to love every aspect of it, be it acting, filmmaking, content creation or production. I have invested a lot of time in Bollywood and now, I can only work towards improving myself here,” said Faisal who made his debut in the role of a police inspector in Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’. Interestingly, since ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, Faisal has received many offers to essay a policeman’s character.
To a query if he has ever been typecast in the industry, Durgesh said he has no issues being offered roles that revolve around stories from villages. “Seventy per cent of India is in its villages. I just have to change my diction and psychology to essay different village characters,” he said.
Durgesh further said he is comfortable doing one-scene roles in films because he believes that there are no small characters but small actors. He, however, said Bollywood now does not give work to actors based on their talent. Citing the example of the late Irrfan Khan, he said it took Irrfan 17 years to establish himself as an actor.
The actors said a writer’s role in a film is important. “It’s a writer who brings so many actors together through the story he weaves. We are all spokes of the cycle called film, interconnected and important to each other,” said Faisal. Both did not expect the popularity that ‘Panchayat’ had brought to them.