Entering Kavya midway as a parallel lead, Mudit Nayyar on combating the prejudice against actors on television
Mudit Nayyar
Almost nine months after Kavya Ek Jazbaa, Ek Junoon aired on television, the show is taking a three-year leap. As the main characters undergo changes in their arcs, Mudit Nayyar makes his entry into the show, imparting life lessons to Kavya (played by Sumbul Touqeer Khan). Playing a happy-go-lucky cab driver, the actor shares that it is the first time in his career that he has entered a show midway. “This is something new for me, so I was sceptical initially. I asked for a meeting to discuss the character and storyline, and it seemed interesting and something not often seen on TV. I was easily sold on that,” shares the actor, adding that his character is “loud, has no filter, but is loveable with a clean heart.” “In reality, I am a reserved person. These types of characters require a lot of energy and can get exhausting at the end of the day, but I took it as a challenge.”
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Nayyar believes that every character he plays teaches him something. With Vicky, he claims that he is learning to be an optimistic person. “I find it difficult to
get too loud with characters, their traits, or the physicality after so many years. I had a lot of help from the makers and the director. My character has a tough
life and is struggling to earn his livelihood. But his attitude towards life is positive. That is something I’d like to adapt in my life too,” says the actor, who, like many others, has been finding it difficult to break into the Bollywood or OTT space.
Nayyar reasons that no matter how many actors on TV try other mediums, they are subtly disparaged and rejected for their past work on the small screen. “It’s a little difficult to crack that segment because [the bias] is obviously there. It’s an unspoken thing. People are polite to your face, but I’ve experienced the [prejudice],” he says, adding that there is no way to rectify the bias.
He says, “I believe you have to keep at it and be so good at your craft that they are compelled to cast you, irrespective of your background.”