Avinash Tiwary of 'Khakee' says actors should not judge characters

Actor Avinash Tiwary, who plays the role of gangster Chandan Mahto in the streaming series 'Khakee: The Bihar Chapter', shared that it's essential for actors not to judge their characters to bring out their essence. To play characters with negative shade, it's important to understand their motivation and the situations that push them to the edge, in Avinash's opinion.

Talking about how he approached his part in the show, the actor said: "A lot of understanding of Chandan's character was tied to getting his psyche right. We worked extensively on his backstory. When you play a character like this, it is important to keep aside all moral compunctions one might have as a person towards the man and approach it purely as an actor. You have to put yourself in his shoes, understand his motivation, essentially find a way to relate to him. It wasn't easy and took a whole lot of rewiring of the mind."

The series is based on IPS officer Amit Lodha's book 'Bihar Diaries', and follows the tussle between two men on opposite sides of the law - one a dreaded gang lord (played by Avinash) and the other a fiercely upright Indian Police Service officer Amit Lodha (played by Karan Tacker). It has been shot in extremely trying circumstances in Jharkhand and Bihar across multiple Covid waves

Talking about honing the diction and the accent for playing this character, the actor further mentioned: "I hail from Bihar, so getting the milieu, setting, the diction and accent right wasn't hard for me. In fact, elders in my family had ample stories about the men who picked up the gun to kill and more often than not, their stories are rooted in deep personal pain, social injustice and wrongs done to them. I had a thoroughly enjoyable time bringing on screen this character who might seem demonic but what makes him that was a thrill to bring out as an actor!

'Khakee: The Bihar Chapter', created and written by Neeraj Pandey of 'A Wednesday' fame, is currently available to stream on OTT platform Netflix.