Amit Mishra ( Bureau Chief, Mumbai )
The first season of the romantic thriller “Ishq Mein Marjawan” was a huge hit among the audience, and the second season of the Beyond Dreams Entertainment’s popular franchise went on-air in July. The show features Vishal Vashishtha in an anti-protagonist role, and the actor says the cast never felt the burden to carry on the success of the previous season.
He praised the producers Yash and Mamta Patnaik for this and said they never spoke about the success of the first season which made the cast feel at ease.
“I will be lying if I said that I did not think about the success of the first show, but honestly I think it comes down to the producers, the first meeting, the first discussion, no where it was mentioned that the first show was a hit so we have a lot riding on our shoulders. And that’s why the actors were very relaxed, very comfortable, each of them was only concentrating on what their character is and how the story is going to go. We had a very important Goa schedule in front of us, which we were starting and all our concentration was there. We had a great time in Goa, but never had the feeling of nervousness or a heavy burden on the shoulder to carry on the success of the first show. The perspective is very fresh, the characters are new, so I guess that changed everything,” he said.
Vishal started his career with Channel V’s “Crazy Stupid Ishq”, but became a household name with “Ek Veer Ki Ardaas… Veera”, where he played the role of Baldev. In the seven years of his career, “Ishq Mein Marjawan 2” is the first time he is playing a negative character called Kabir Sharma. He shared that he is quite exciting and challenging at the same time. He also mentioned that his character has so many get ups in the show which makes it interesting.
Talking about his role, he said, “I play an anti-protagonist in the show. All the previous roles that I did on TV have been one of those good guys. Even though when I played someone rugged, nothing really changed, he would start feeling differently. But Kabir is different. He is not really a psychotic guy, but he touches the line and comes back, which is quite exciting. So it’s kind of challenging also that sometimes you don’t want to push yourself beyond the line where he will be called a psycho. He is a very smart guy, and he plans everything, he is very impulsive, he is agitated at times, there is a restlessness about him.”
“Also, he has so many getups. I have never had so many getups in a show where the character dresses up as someone else, with a beard and everything. All these things are kind of exciting, and it’s fun to do scenes like that. And plus, there is a lot more to the character that’s going to come, we have already started shooting it and I think this is the most exciting time for the character. And I am sure there will be much more to come in the future, currently which I am not aware of. But this character stretches to a whole new range and that is why I chose this character,” he added.
Asked if he is ready for the audience’s comment for playing an antagonist, he said, “When I took up the role I was not really thinking that the character is going to turn anti-protagonist, or how intense will it be. But now when I am shooting for the show, there have been some moments where Kabir has done a few things which a good guy won’t do, so people have started anticipating that he is not what he looks like. I have come across comments like ‘why are you doing this?’, ‘you are such a good-looking guy and you end up doing such messy things’. But I guess, I am kind of ready for it now. After doing all the good guy roles and saving the female protagonists of the show from difficult situations and getting everyone out of traps, I am now ready for the audience’s feedback for this role.”
This is the second time that Vishal has united with Beyond Dreams Entertainment and says he is lucky to be back with the team again. He praised Yash for always adding a personal touch and appreciated Mamta for considering an actor’s inputs. He said, “It was quite a journey when we did ‘…Veera’. I really like them as producers, they are not those corporate producers who sit in their offices and just fund your operations. Even Yash sir who is not that creatively involved makes sure his actors are most comfortable on the sets. He himself calls the actors and makes them feel better about the situation because we were all going through a tough situation in the past three-four months. So he himself called everyone and told us how we are going to take things forward, and he keeps everyone in the loop. And Mamta ma’am is very outgoing when she is writing about something. She really sits with the actors and asks what do you think about this, do you have any inputs.”
“Be it ‘… Veera’ or now ‘Ishq Mein Marjawaan 2’, there hasn’t been a situation where we were told that we can’t do something, I have been able to put whatever little input I had in my character without any hesitation, without any friction with the director. So I am lucky to be back with this team again, and it’s a very comfortable zone to work in,” Vishal signed off.
“Ishq Mein Marjawan 2” also features Helly Shah and Rrahul Sudhir. It airs on
