Panchayat Actor Durgesh Kumar Reveals Being Thrown Out From NSD Due To Imtiaz Ali's Highway

Durgesh Kumar has been receiving rave reviews for his performance in Panchayat. The actor played the role of Bhushan alias Banrakas in the series since the first season. While the actor rose to fame with Panchayat, he had a long journey in the industry. In a recent interview with Josh Talks, the actor recalled the ups and downs in his career and shared that Imtiaz Ali’s Highway got him thrown out from NSD.

Durgesh Kumar recalled the lowest point in his life and career

The actor recalled that one of his friends worked at Mukesh Chhabra’s casting agency and through him, he gave the audition for Aamir Khan starrer PK. However, later Kumar was informed that he was not selected for the film. By then, he bagged a role on Highway. “It was a 45-day schedule from Gurgaon to Jammu and Kashmir. That time I took a 45-day leave from the repertory. Because of the rules, I was thrown out of the repertory. I felt very bad that time. It was a low point for me,” he added.

Despite being thrown out of the NSD repertory, he didn’t feel discouraged and came to Mumbai in 2013. He started taking up work where he just had one or two scenes in movies like Freaky Ali and Sultan. He revealed, “For survival, I also did soft porn with the ALT Balaji show Virgin Bhaskar Season 1 and 2. From 2013 to 2022, I was trying, and working very hard. The casting directors could see my potential. I auditioned for big roles, but I couldn’t crack anything. I could not win the producer’s trust for some reason.”

However, owing to the lockdown things completely changed and he was flooded with lots of work. He got a lot of work in the lockdown but was still unable to break that loop. That’s when he got an audition call for Panchayat and the rest is history.

Who is Durgesh Kumar?

Durgesh made his acting debut with the 2014 movie Highway and went on to feature in movies such as The Suspect, Sanju, Bhakshak, Laapataa Ladies and Dedh Bigha Zameen.