It’s a blast from the past for actor Avinash Mukherjee, who is reliving his childhood days by watching the re-run of his TV show Balika Vadhu amid the ongoing lockdown in the country. The show that went on air for eight years made him a household name for his character, young Jagya. Calling it a very “surreal feeling” to see himself back onscreen as a child actor, Mukherjee, now 22, says, “Balika Vadhu was an acting school for me and I used to be very seeking to learn new things every day.”
Behind the scene, he, and his then co-star Avika Gor, used to spend a lot of time talking to the senior actors and crew members to understand how things work.
“Even Annup ji (actor, Annup Sonii) used to teach us how not to fumble while speaking and Neha Marda used to teach us about personality development - how to walk, how to carry yourself in public, and much more. Once the shoot was over, instead of going to the vanity van, we would sit with the cameraman, make-up dada and technicians and ask a lot of questions,” he recounts.
One thing that stayed with Mukherjee till today is something that an assistant director on the show told him. “He had said, ‘actor toh koi bhi achha bann sakta hai, pehle achha insaan banna bahut zaroori hai’. Your success doesn’t depend upon your talent as much as it does on one’s attitude and perspective about your work and other things. This struck me and I strongly believe in it even now.”
Apart from getting all the love and affection from the cast and crew of the show, the actor shares how he didn’t any special treatment being a child actor. “I wasn’t given any leverage of being an 11-year-old and was not expected to be a child or take my work lightly. They always expected me to be professional like a grown-up, memorise my lines and come prepared on the sets,” he reveals.
Mukherjee further recalls how his mother ensured that his education didn’t suffer because of his acting career and hence, after working for two years on this show, he went back to finishing his studies. “I took a break of five years and made a come back with another show Sanskaar — Dharohar Apnon Ki and since then, there has been no stopping. But I make sure to keep a balance between my studies and work and never let any of them suffer. Even now, amid the lockdown, since the shooting of my show Shakti: Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki is on hold, I’m utilising this time by honing my creative instinct and writing poetry, short stories,” he ends.
