Why Freedom At Midnight 2 Creator Nikkhil Advani Called Anurag Thakur His 'Manoj Bajpayee' - EXCL

One of the breakout stars of last year's hit show Black Warrant, Anurag Thakur, is making waves again in the new year with his role as Madanlal Pahwa in Freedom at Midnight Season 2. The actor booked the part

on the series after someone else had already been cast. But after having worked with filmmaker Nikkhil Advani on the 2024 film Vedaa, he was called in to audition. The rest, as they say, is history. The Black Warrant actor talked to us about learning more about his character and the Partition after he was cast, and how he tried to stay in Madanlal's headspace by maintaining a diary. Anurag also shared what his director told him after the premiere of the SonyLIV series.

Anurag Thakur on learning up about Madanlal Pahwa

Speaking with Zoom, Anurag revealed that he didn't know much about Madanlal Pahwa. He shared, "I had to know about him first. So I read about him that he was in a gang and then I read his interviews. First, [it was] articles that just mentioned him online. I read all of them. I read the script and got a lot of information from it, and then I spoke to Sir once, that how do you want me to play it? He said, ‘It's your thing, your choice, your approach. Mujhe koi dikat nahin hai.’ So I went back home and rest, preparation you have for a character I did. I make a backstory. I imagine stuff. And I find my motivations to do these things, and that's how it happened."

The Freedom at Midnight actor revealed the shoot was physically and mentally draining. Anurag said, "There was a lot of running and moving around in the script. The difficult part is actually to believe and convince yourself that you are actually going through all of that. The articles that I read and the interviews I heard, they really helped me to imagine stuff, and I just sat down quietly and then think all this is happening. I used to visualize everything that I read. I maintained a diary. I do it for all the characters, like I'm writing it [as if] it's my diary, my journal, and I write as Madanlal Pahwa. This is happening to me. This morning I went here... my daily routine. My relation with my father, my relation with my stepmother and the children, and what's happening around. What was there in the newspaper, etc? The backstory really helps to live the character, to believe that this all is happening to you. It is difficult to imagine things that are not pleasing and healthy, but you have to do it."Anurag had to really dig deep to find information about Madanlal, as there was no video footage available. He added, "I guess there are two or three photographs of him in a coat, and there's an interview of him from the 1970s or 1980s that was printed, after he was released from jail. I read that even after years, he still believed that he would have done it. He carried that grudge for so long. It was something difficult for him as a person. He must have gone through a lot. So I was like, I cannot just make a simple backstory, and just act there. You actually have to believe it. So, I read about Partition, about people at that time, and listened to their interviews, and my friends and their dadaji or relatives who had come over at that time. So I thought if it had happened to me, then what would have happened?"

Waiting patiently for Freedom at Midnight Season 2's premiere

Researching about the Partition taught him a lot about the history of India. Anurag recalled, "There were a lot of things, for example, Madanlal Pahwa. I didn't even know of him. I had not heard of him. I had heard of other people whose history had been taught to us. Sabse pehle mera hi character mujhe pata nahin tha. Again till Class 10, I had studied history about the Partition, but to actually see it happening in front of me [on set]. It's like, Oh shit, this actually happened!'"

He shot for Freedom at Midnight before Netflix's Black Warrant and had to wait nearly a year and a half after the first season for his character to appear. Anurag explained, "I'm very patient that way. That has never been a problem, and I knew that when Season 2 will come out, people will like it. But I did not expect that itna time lag jayega. I thought six or seven months, maybe. Also, the shoot, my part was shot in 10 days, but those 10 days were spread over a period of five months. So I shot only once a month, and then I had to maintain that continuity mentally for the next month, so it was difficult." But after the show has been out since January 9, the response has been all positive. He continued, "People are loving it. And for once, I did not expect this reaction from people because I thought that chhota sa part hai, aayega, jayega, apne gharwale dekh lege, utna hi kaafi hai. But that's not what happened, Nikkhil sir, he called me and said, "Tu mera Manoj Bajpayee hai."Both seasons of Freedom at Midnight are now streaming. The cast of the historical drama series includes Sidhant Gupta, Chirag Vohra, Rajendra Chawla, Luke McGibney, and Arif Zakaria.