It could be a scene right out of a ’70s Hindi movie. A wide-eyed, hopeful man alights from the train at Bandra Terminus, and on the pretext of picking up his dropped handkerchief, touches his forehead to the ground. His “pranaam” to the land that he hopes will take care of him now. That’s a tad filmi, we tell Chandan Roy. But he proudly says, “My haav-bhaav is all filmi.”

To him, he is that filmi boy who made his way from Mahnar, Bihar to Mumbai to chase the Bollywood dream. To the rest of us, he is the good-natured assistant Vikas Shukla in his breakthrough series, Panchayat.

After completing his education in Patna and working at Dainik Jagran in Delhi for two-and-a-half years, Roy first arrived in Mumbai in October 2017. What followed is the classic script of a struggling actor—sharing his first accommodation with five people in Versova, giving countless auditions, seeing his savings of Rs. 60,000 diminish over four months. Within weeks of his stay, he noticed a shift in him. 

“Whoever comes to Mumbai, becomes a believer. Someone told me that whenever new people come to the city, they visit the Mumba Devi temple in Bhuleshwar. So, after about a month, I went to seek the Devi’s blessings.”

His prayers were soon answered. In January 2018, the actor landed his first role, the leading lady’s brother in a show on Baba Ramdev. In November 2018, the actor auditioned for a web series. He was told the makers were casting for two small roles.

“After two-three weeks, I got a call telling me that my audition was liked, and they wanted to test me for a bigger role. So I auditioned again. The following day, I was called for a meeting at the TVF office. There, Deepak Kumar Mishra [Panchayat director] said, ‘Where were you? We’ve been looking for you all this while.’ I thought he was asking where I lived, so I told him I was staying in Versova. He was amused by that.”

And just like that, Roy shot for Panchayat, playing leading man Jitendra Kumar’s assistant. The struggle was over. The proverbial big break was here. Or so he thought.

In March 2020, the pandemic struck and nationwide lockdown was enforced. “At the time, we were all hearing the rising number of deaths. So, I thought it would be better to return home. That way, if something happened to me, at least my family would be around me,” he recalls. Roy returned home the way he had come, an aspiring actor who had no roles, only dreams to speak of.

But something changed the very next month. Panchayat dropped on Amazon Prime Video, and overnight, Roy became a household name.

This was his big moment. Many calls—congratulatory and of offers—followed, as did months of waiting due to the lockdown. It was only in December 2020 that Roy, after borrowing Rs. 15,000 from his family, returned to the Maximum City.

This time around, he was a rising star. But Mumbai wasn’t going to roll out the red carpet for him. “A friend, who let me stay with him in Andheri, asked me to move out after a few days, fearing that his landlord would oust him. Though I got some recognition after Panchayat, I didn’t have a place to stay in Mumbai.”

Luckily, he bagged a film, Hanak (2021), to be shot in Bhopal for a month. “I didn’t care how much I got paid. My only thought was that my accommodation and meals for the month were sorted.”

The actor has since gone on to star in the second season of Panchayat, Hostel Daze 2, Pitchers 2 and the Manoj Bajpayee-led film, Gulmohar. In the past two years, he has shifted multiple houses, but has found his footing in this city that continues to astound him with its “energy”. Earlier this year, he even ticked that one box that is considered an elusive Mumbai dream— of having a place of his own.

“Itne saal jiske sapne dekhe, aakhir wahan pahuch hi gaya,” says Roy, who currently rents an apartment in Lokhandwala, Andheri. “If anything magical happens, it happens in Mumbai. There is still a lot more to do and achieve.”

It will all happen, he is sure, in the dream factory that is Mumbai. Now that he has been around for almost three years, what does he like the most about the city? “The monsoon,” he says promptly. Umm, the average Mumbaiite would disagree, hating how the rains bring life to a standstill. But the artiste in him chooses romanticisation over reality.

“If I were a kid, I’d go out to get wet in the rain. Now, I enjoy the rain indoors. The greenery all around is a beautiful sight, the smell of wet earth [calms me]. I love Mumbai rains. In Bihar, if it rained for a week like it does here, life would become impossible.”

If he is gung-ho about Mumbai rains, he is disheartened by its food scene. Vada pav and samosa pav don’t cut it for the lover of chana sattu.

“The only place I love to eat at is a restaurant called Pancham Puriwala, near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. I love their thaali with puris.” Surely, he must be a fan of the city’s famous chaats? “I think pani puri in Bihar is better than that of Delhi or Mumbai,” he grins.

But Roy isn’t complaining. He has his blinkers on, and will keep pace with this city, step for step. He has an end goal to meet—to own a house in Mumbai, a sign of permanence in the fickle city. “There is a wonderful apartment complex in Madh Island. If you go 20 floors and above, you can see the sea all around. I’d love to have a home there.”

That it is a magical city. For people like us, it has changed our lives. I can see my dreams being fulfilled here. If you work hard, then anything is possible.

 

The traffic, because you don’t know how long you will be delayed and you get even more restless.

I hope it continues to accept me, and bless me with more work.

Much better than I had imagined, and soon. As one grows, the struggle becomes harder. Love it, and the city owns you and loves you back. Once you live here, you don’t feel like living anywhere else.

Yes. As long as I am young and can work. However, when I grow old, I’d prefer the mountains.

Niharika Lyra Dutt - Paatal Lok

Who was the face of 2020 — cinema and series included? No doubt, Pankaj Tripathi! Just look at the year he's had, while the world was reeling in darkness. He offered inimitable lightness of touch across platforms — as the travel agent Tony in Angrezi Medium, Ovi Mahajan Sr in the Hollywood blood-fest Extraction, reprising Kaleen Bhaiya in the desi blood-fest Mirzapur 2. Or playing its opposite, the lovable, colonel father in Gunjan Saxena; carrying forward the immense charm in Anurag Basu's Ludo, and the solid series, Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors.

Likewise, how could you take your eyes off Jaideep Ahlawat in Paatal Lok, or Jitendra Kumar in both Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan and Panchayat. Or not fall for the easy-going Pratik Gandhi as Harshad Mehta in Scam 1992, or Shreya Chaudhary in Bandish Bandits (even the male lead Ritwik Bhowmik), apart from veterans Naseeruddin Shah, Atul Kulkarni, especially the quiet Sheeba Chaddha.

Leads and even key supporting cast apart, ones who stood out in 2020 though, I think, were second/third row, pretty much unknown actors, in relatively bit parts, shining still, as they got to explore their roles further.

Which is what a series (as against a film) allows for. In that sense, this was the year of the casting director, besides content, being king. I couldn't help but notice with immense joy some fresh faces, who'd be relegated to walk-on parts, or 'junior artistes', if you may, in traditional Bollywood!

Yes, this is the glowingly warm show about the urban gram sachiv (Jitendra Kumar) and the rural prashan pati (the great Raghubir Yadav). But you take away the two adorable bumblers Vikas and Prahlad, who hang with the lead characters, and Panchayat (on Amazon Prime Video) would lose half its punch (lines/moments)! They're so good. But who are they? Exactly! Hope to see more of them.

Paatal Lok (on Amazon Prime Video) is a deathly gritty series about deceitful, greedy men and the madness they're capable of. For heaven's sake, you get hit really hard by Sanjiv Mehra (Neeraj Kabi), Hathi Ram (Jaideep Ahlawat), young Ansari (Ishwak Singh), or quite literally, Hathoda Tyagi (Abhishek Banerjee). And then the two phenomenal women show up — Sanjiv's young love-interest Sara (Niharika Lyra Dutt), and his disturbed wife Dolly (Swastika Mukherjee) — the softness of their screen presence blows you away, way more. How's that even possible? Evidently is.

What's there not to endlessly admire about the ensemble cast of the financial thriller on SonyLIV, where everyone brilliantly plays somebody who existed in real life — from BSE's Big Bull Harshad Mehta (Pratik Gandhi), business reporter Sucheta Dalal (Shreya Dhanwanthary), down to the sharp CBI officer Raghavan (Rajat Kapoor). But Harshad's earnest-looking brother, Ashwin (Hemant Kher) — man, did they get the actual guy (who's alive) to play the part, or what? That's what I thought. He's that great!

Sure the quasi-reality series Masaba Masaba has got to be about Masaba, and in equal measure her mom Neena Gupta. And then, on occasion, in this six-episode Netflix show, Masaba's friend Gia walks into the screen, performing like there's no camera before her, and I can't help but wonder: Why haven't I seen her before? Or have I!

Ghosh Babu is the sort of a portly yin to the yang of muscular Haryanvi/Punjabi drunk affluent goons hosting a wedding in Manali over yet another crime series, Undekhi (on SonyLIV). The entire cast stands out for pulling off through performances, what portions of the script lacks in its coherence, sometimes. You notice gems of a turn — from Papaji (Harsh Chhaya), daughter-in-law to be (Apeksha Singh), her videographer friend (Ayn Zoya), her fiancé (Ankur Rathee), his badass brother from another mother, Rinku (Surya Sharma)…. But Bengali DSP Ghosh (Dibyendu Bhattacharya) has all your attention — through and through!

No, I can't remember Anupria Goenka from Padmaavat, just noticing it on her IMDb. Likewise she was more or less a fleeting presence (by way of impact) in Asur (on Voot ), and you watched her in Aashram (MX Player) in the same year. Once she's familiar to the audience from Criminal Justice 1, you catch her so naturally matching wits with Pankaj Tripathi on Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors (on Disney+Hotstar) and go: What a find! This is to take away nothing from the star of the show, Kirti Kulhari, widening her range from the breezy Four More Shots Please, with what's probably the most painfully felt performance of the year. And, hell, how on-point is Jisshu Sengupta as the top lawyer.

Without an exception, everyone on Amazon Prime Video's iconic Mirzapur series is by now a star in their own right, known as well by their screen names — Guddu (Ali Fazal), Munna (Divyenndu Sharma), Bablu (Vikrant Massey), Beena Ji (Rasika Dugal), Golu (Shweta Tripathi)… Yet, Isha Talwar shows up as a young politician Madhuri Yadav in Season 2, with a quiet strut, and damn, you sit up, and take notice.

Ram Madhvani's delightfully dark, authentic adaptation of Dutch series Penoza (on Disney+Hotstar) of course gave Sushmita Sen a new lease of life, in a heavy part that she probably wasn't offered even at her peak. Sikander Kher's solid too. But I'm talking about discovering faces. And, well, how do you replicate the swag coupled with vulnerability of the cop (Vikas Kumar) investigating a drug/murder case, and the rich brat (Ankur Bhatia), navigating the law. Blown, totally.

Of course Asur on Voot Select is Arshad Warsi's comeback, in every way. And a launch-pad of sorts for young Barun Sobti. Like with all the major Indian series, the ensemble cast is killing it too. Sometimes though, I suspect, it's just about a presence on screen — the fact that they're there; not even doing or saying much, but looking every bit in the moment. That's what viscerally draws you in towards them. That was Riddhi Dogra as a mid-level CBI officer to me. Just there!