Jeetu se charcha

Jitendra Kumar who shot to fame with his role as ‘Jeetu’ in the runaway hit web series ‘TVF Pitchers’ loves acting anywhere and anytime. Currently, he is doing a satirical web series called ‘Daaru Pe Charcha’, which takes a jibe on social and political issues in the country, not over “chai” or “paani” but over the ubiquitous equaliser, “daaru”.

Jitendra hails from Khairthal, Rajasthan and is a Civil Engineer graduate from IIT Kharagpur. In a freewheeling chat with The Hans India, he talks about his career, web as an entertainment medium, flak received for ‘Daaru Pe Charcha’ and more.

Excerpts

Tell us about your first show?
Technically my first web show is 'Tech conversations with my dad'. It was a simple relatable thought every one of us at TVF had and we were confident that every son/daughter would relate it to; this led to the making of the pilot episode of the web series which was highly accepted by the audience and gave us a boost to continue with it. Parallelly, we were working hard towards shaping my role as a coder in 'TVF Pitchers'.

On the screen, you give many tech tips to the dad. How tech-savvy are your own parents?
My mom doesn't give a sh*t regarding any gadgets and my dad does the tech conversations with me exactly the way you have seen in the episodes. Trust me, it's the same feeling what you share with your parents.

Tell us about your experience in ‘TVF Pitchers’?
As an actor, I enjoy theatre the most. ‘Pitchers’ allowed me to be on stage and re-live my theatre moments during workshops and rehearsals. However, working on the sets of ‘Pitchers’ was totally a different experience as compared to working on the stage. It was the actors working as per the camera rather than the camera adjusting as per the actors. It was a great learning experience for me working with the technically sound director Amit Golani.

What is the idea behind choosing a topic for ‘Daru pe Charcha’?
‘Daaru pe charcha’ team is highly capable of converting any topic into a funny conversation. But, we try to keep it close to current issues so that people can relate it to in a much better way and at the same time we manage to save our heads from being chopped off.

Did you receive any flak from the supporters of the people on whom you took a jab?
Yes, sh*t happens! But we are always confident in converting it to gold. We have been called several times for such issues and each time we have made them laugh on the same topics. Because we are too honest and so much of honesty makes us look funny.

Do you think web series will dominate mainstream television in the future?
No, it won’t, but it is growing at a very fast pace. Radio, cinema, television and web are totally different platforms and entertain people in their own way to their audience. But, yes definitely as radio re-innovated its content to make a comeback, television should also think on the same lines.

How do you prepare for your roles?
In my opinion, most of the actors have their personalities, which are naturally reflected in all the characters they play. For me, I'm quite similar to the characters I've played so far. But I would love to work hard to play a character that forces me to deviate from my original self. To prepare for my roles I do basic things which include going through the script thoroughly and rehearsing the lines as per my understanding of the characters of the script. Real life observations help me in this.

What kind of constraints an actor and a production house face while doing a web series?
The major constraint is the time; it leads to intense pressure situations. Every project requires a specific amount of time, shortage of which leads in spoiling it for sure. In some rare cases, we are able to turn the tables and create a masterpiece. It's an effort of 50-70 people that goes into the making of a 5-minute video. And fun fact, the making of an entertaining video is a very tough task, just like making a cow sing.

By Navin Pivhal