There is a flip-side to a successful first season—it raises the audience’s expectations from the subsequent edition. Gulshan Devaiah will agree. The actor, who is gearing up for the release of the second season of Duranga, admits he was as nervous as he was excited about it.

“This is the first time that [my show] has got a second season, so I was happy. [But] I didn’t want to be complacent, which is good, because it made me pull up my socks,” he says.

What made the ZEE5 crime drama all the more special was that it reunited him with director Rohan Sippy.

“He gave me one of my first opportunities in Dum Maaro Dum [2011]. So, it was nice to come back to him 12 years later as his leading man.” The actor also considers himself lucky to have found good co-stars in Drashti Dhami, Barkha Bisht and Amit Sadh.

Good co-stars are a boon to an actor’s pursuit of excellence. Devaiah found that in his Ulajh co-star Janhvi Kapoor as well. From believing that they will never share screen space, to being deeply impressed by her, it has been quite a ride for the actor.

He shares, “I briefly met Janhvi during the promotions for Ghost Stories [2020] and found her funny. That’s a good first impression one can have of anyone. I never imagined that we would be paired together in a film because we have different sensibilities. Whenever two people with contrasting styles come together, it can be interesting. When we met, she mentioned a few nice observations about my character. She is extremely hardworking. I couldn’t do the amount of things that she does in a week.”