Exclusive/ I Never Wanted To Become An Actor: Panchayat's 'Banrakas' Aka Durgesh Kumar At Republic's Rashtriya Sarvopari Sammelan

Durgesh Kumar rose to nationwide fame after featuring in the role of Bhushan Kumar aka Banrakas in the Prime Video web series Panchayat. Led by Jitendra Kumar, Raghuvir Yadav and Neena Gupta, the latest season of the show wrapped up in June 2025. While fans of the series wait in anticipation for the next season, Durgesh Kumar appeared as a guest at Republic Bharat's Rashtriya Sarvopari Sammelan.

Speaking at the event, the actor detailed his humble beginnings and his career ambitions before trying his luck in showbiz. Hailing from Darbhanga, Bihar, acting was not the first choice of career for the 44-year-old actor. Durgesh said, “I never wanted to become an actor. I wanted to obey my father, so I wanted to become an engineer or else do BCA, get married and have children. It is a coincidence that my brother told me to do theatre, and the path I decided after that is the one in front of you.”
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Durgesh also shared that he went to the extent of giving the engineering entrance exam of engineering, but ended up doing his graduation in Hindi Honours after not being able to go through the entrance test. He recalled, “I had given the engineering entrance. I took the IIT exam on 9th December 2001. My elder brother, Dr Shivshakti, who is a chemistry teacher in Bihar, said that I should take up theatre or personality development, So I joined theatre workshop in the subsequent days and kept doing it. I've been doing theatre since 2001. I even left studies for three years. I finally completed my graduation from IGNOU in New Delhi."

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Apart from his graduation, Durgesh also holds a postgraduate diploma in acting from the National School of Drama.