‘Panchayat’ actor Durgesh Kumar aka Banrakas buys his first home in Mumbai, shares picture of keys

Durgesh Kumar Pic/Instagram

Actor Durgesh Kumar, who reprised his role as Banrakas in the third season of the drama streaming series 'Panchayat', shared on Instagram that he had purchased his first house in Mumbai. He posted a picture of his keys and wrote, "Aapna Ghar..... Mumbai main thanks Babuji Harekrishna Choudhary Aashirwad k liye."

Durgesh made his debut in films with Imtiaz Ali's ‘Highway', starring Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda. Later, he starred in major projects like ‘Sultan', ‘Laapataa Ladies', and ‘Bhakshak', among others.

Speaking about his journey to the maximum city with Lallantop, he said, "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."

To earn money and manage his living in a city like Mumbai, Durgesh had to work in soft porn. "I convinced myself, saying, ‘No one gives you room rent, friends don't give you money. It's a lie that you can struggle for 10-20 years with your friends' money.' So, I took support with the small things I did," he told mid-day.com.

Kumar's role as Banrakas has become one of the most memorable characters in the Indian streaming space due to his cunning ways and his resistance to the characters of Pradhan-pati (played by Raghubir Yadav) and Abhishek (played by Jitendra Kumar).

Discussing his preparation for the role, Durgesh told IANS: "Chandan Kumar has written such an amazing script for 'Panchayat' that an actor rarely has to go beyond the source material. Script ko aap 200 baar paddh lijiye, apko character ka sara sur samajh aa jata hai (If you read the script 200 times, you will understand every nuance of the character)."

People often talk about method acting, when asked if he has taken a similar route for his character, the actor said that he drew inspiration for his character in ‘Panchayat' from someone he knows personally.

"There's a person named Balakan Chaudhary in my village, he is a Banrakas in the true sense. I borrowed some of his mannerisms and fused them with what was given in the script in terms of the pitching of the character, and I made Banrakas in the show with flesh and blood," he said.

Created by The Viral Fever, directed by Deepak Kumar Mishra, and written by Chandan Kumar, 'Panchayat 3' is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

(With inputs from IANS)