Durgesh Kumar became a household name with his portrayal of Bhushan, aka Banrakas, in the beloved series Panchayat. The social media’s meme favorite actor is celebrating his birthday today, i.e. October 21. On the special occasion, revisiting the time when the actor had revealed Alia Bhatt became a fan of his dancing skills on the sets of Imtiaz Ali’s Highway.
In an earlier interview with Spotlight Magazine, Durgesh Kumar talked about his experience working with Alia Bhatt in Highway. He mentioned the actress was a “chirpy little girl” when he met her for the first time, as opposed to his expectation of meeting a diva. The birthday boy hailed it as a great time working with the Jigra actress.
The Panchayat actor explained that his character in the film would understand the equation between Randeep Hooda and Alia Bhatt’s character, and he was supposed to treat the actress’ character like a younger sister.
“The dance sequence I performed with her has generated a lot of buzz, and I had a blast shooting it. After we shot the scene, Alia told me she was a fan of my dancing skills I take that as a huge compliment because I just did what I felt like and didn’t care too much about my moves,” he said.
In the same interview, Durgesh also expressed his delight after bagging the role in Imtiaz Ali’s directorial. He shared he didn’t bathe for 26 days or sleep for two days to get into the character’s skin. While he expected the director to be impressed by his gesture, the filmmaker told him he wanted his actors to be natural.
The actor walked down memory lane and noted that Ali remained patient with him. He highlighted that his character had to be sweet with a comic touch. Thus, whenever he would act, everyone on the set would start rolling on the floor with laughter.
“In fact, during one of the initial scenes where Alia speaks to me for the first time, our cinematographer Anil Mehta couldn’t stop laughing because I had delivered the scene with so much conviction,” he shared.
Durgesh was last seen in Panchayat Season 3 earlier this year.
