The upside of having a successful series is that the audience can’t wait for the second season. The downside is that the following edition has to match sky-high expectations. Arshad Warsi, who has reprised his role of forensic expert Dhananjay Rajput in Asur 2, admits that the pressure weighed on him through the shoot up to its release earlier this month. The actor believes his character took on more complex shades in the latest season of the mythological thriller, also starring Barun Sobti.

“Dhananjay is edgier, more unpredictable and intense than before. He is right in what he wants to do [catch the serial killer], but wrong in how he goes about doing it. It was not an easy character to play because Dhananjay is diametrically opposite to me. I’m an easy-going guy,” says Warsi.

In his 27-year career, rarely has any role affected the actor as much as this did. Warsi says that Dhananjay was one character he carried back home. “With most projects, you leave your baggage on the set and go home. But with Asur, I was with that darkness from the beginning to the end. It begins to affect you subconsciously.”

So, how did he shake off the character? “I kept telling myself, ‘It was work, it’s over. Now, move on to the next one.’”

While audiences across the country swear by the thriller, it hasn’t earned a fan in Warsi’s wife Maria Goretti. She hasn’t watched either season, he reveals. “She finds it too scary. After a lot of coaxing, she watched the first episode of the first season, but the minute she saw a dead body with its fingers cut, she switched off the TV and refused to watch anymore.”