Actor Durgesh Kumar has been greatly appreciated for his performance in the recently released third season of Panchayat. While Durgesh has been a part of the show since the first season, he had a long journey in the industry before he began to garner recognition. In a chat with Josh Talks, Durgesh shared the ups and downs he faced in his professional life. He also revealed that he auditioned for PK, but never got selected, and when he bagged Imtiaz Ali’s Highway, it came at the cost of his ouster from the NSD repertory.
Durgesh said, “A friend of mine who worked at Mukesh Chhabra’s casting agency called me to audition for PK, but later he informed me that I was not selected for the film. He then told me that I bagged a role in Imtiaz Ali’s Highway. It was a 45-day schedule from Gurgaon to Jammu and Kashmir. That time I took a 45-day leave from the repertory. Because of the rules, I was thrown out of the repertory. I felt very bad that time. It was a low point for me.”
Durgesh further added, “I then came to Mumbai in 2013, and got into the drill. I started taking work where I just had one or two scenes in films like Freaky Ali, and Sultan. For survival, I also did soft porn with the ALT Balaji show Virgin Bhaskar Season 1 and 2. From 2013 to 2022, I was trying, and working very hard. The casting directors could see my potential. I auditioned for big roles, but I couldn’t crack anything. I could not win the producer’s trust for some reason.”
However, the lockdown was a game-changer for him, as he had a lot of work at that time. He said, “I got a lot of work in the lockdown, still I was unable to break that loop. That’s when I got an audition call for Panchayat.”
He shared, “There was a time when my father had a brain hemorrhage, and at the same time I was getting calls to do Panchayat season two, Bhakshak, and Laapataa Ladies. I shot Bhakshak while I was in Darbhanga. I would travel to Lucknow by train to shoot and return home. I told my brother that I would not do Laapataa Ladies since my father was not well, but he told me that it’s an Aamir Khan production, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so to do it. My brother assured me that he would look after my father, and that’s when I did Laapataa Ladies.”
