Anant Joshi On Working With Gullak Cast Members, Special Nainital Connection With Jameel Khan - Exclusive

The

fifth season of Gullak welcomes Anant Joshi to the cast. He joins Jameel Khan, Geetanjali Kulkarni, and Harsh Mayar as the rest of the Mishra family. The show returns on June 5 on SonyLIV. Anant spoke to us about his experiences working on the show as he takes over the role of Anand Mishra, aka Annu. The actor shared his feelings on working with the already established cast and sharing a special connection with Jameel Khan, who plays his father. They both have lived in Nainital, Uttarakhand and bonded over their memories.

Anant Joshi on joining cast of Gullak 5

In an interview with Zoom, Anant shared that they had a full read-through of the episodes before shooting began and that's where the ice melted between him and the rest of the cast. He joked, "The whole glacier melted. And we all felt so nice and warm. The added advantage was that I had worked with Gitanjali, with Harsh, with Sunita Rajwar earlier. Besides Jameel sir, I've worked with everybody in the team. And we have always been connected very personally."

Speaking about him joining the show and replacing Vaibhav Raj Gupta, who had played the character before, the actor said that the cast was aware of his casting when it was being finalised. He said, "They were all really happy that agar yeh faisla hua hai, agar yeh replacement hua hai [if the decision has been made for a replacement], if I'm doing it, they were very welcoming and warm about it. And they were almost kind of rooting for me. So, which really helped me and made me feel like you've done this in the industry, where your co-actors are rooting for you, then you are in the right direction." He pointed out his special connection with Jameel Khan, who had done his school in Nainital, where Anant's family is from. Anant shared, "So, we had so much substance purana to discuss Nainital. He knows better corners than I do. So, sahi jam hota tha show mein. And I think that has reflected well. Sab ke sab, aise manje hue, trained actors; they are not actors jo ki kismet se actors bann gaye [actors who got lucky]. They are actors who have worked hard for their craft. So, there is no attitude where you would feel this is a barrier because all of them are working to make your project better, make each and every scene, each and every moment, valuable for the audience."

Anant Joshi on walking on the Gullak set for first time

The 12th Fail actor also spoke about the "surreal feeling" of working on the show after being a fan. He shared, "It's almost like a 7-D experience, like glasses lagake video games kehte ho. I've never played that, but this is how I assume. That's exactly what I've felt for first few couple of days, I kid you not, because I was like, arre, yeh toh main TV peh dekhta tha and ab main yaha pe hoon [I used to watch this on TV and now I'm here]." He compared the experience to the song Zoobi Doobi from 3 Idiots when the characters walk into the TV. Anant exclaimed, "It's exactly that feeling. These were the people that you've seen as characters, and now you are with them in that house. It is such an out-of-body experience that a few times I stopped a scene and said one minute. It feels like deja vu, I've seen it from a very different point of view. But I'm so glad that I get to experience this feeling because yeh aapko baar baar nahin milti [you don't get this again and again]."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DJLNCp5HyI

Anant went on to add that before Gullak, all his projects were a clean slate because he got to create his own characters. He said, "But this one was something that this slate was fully colored and filled and then I became part of, and they allowed me to add more colours to it. So, I take it very positively. I really enjoyed this feeling because what else is there in life; you're gathering experiences." Gullak 5 is directed by Abhay Raut and Shreyansh Pandey and written by Vidit Tripathi. Created by Pandey, the Hindi series is produced by The Viral Fever (TVF).