Hrishikesh Pandey: Playing a double role is really interesting!

Actor Hrishikesh Pandey has been getting a lot of appreciation for his double role in Siddharth Kumar Tewary’s Porus. The actor says that not only are the two roles diverse, the look too is absolutely different. “Playing a double role is really interesting, one is of Senapati Ripu Daman and the other one is a pirate who hides his identity and becomes Sajjan Singh, saving the Porus and the kingdom. So for that, he has to sacrifice a lot. And the interesting part is, the entire look, the hairstyle, the costume is different. A little change in mustache is also there. When I am playing a warrior the mustache is up and when I am playing a pirate the mustache is down,” he says.

The actor considers himself lucky to bag a double role on the small screen. “On television, you hardly get to play such a role. Most of the television shows, you play a double role like father and son, where the two looks are alike. But this has a different timing of the same person and he comes and hides his identity and becomes the other person,” he says.

Talking more about his character of Ripu Daman, Hrishikesh says, “Ripu Daman is loyal to King Bamani, Porus's father. He is his loyal right-hand man who is a Senapati, a general commandant man of the army. He sacrifices his life, family, and everything to secure the child and the kingdom,” he says.

The actor got injured on the sets of the show as well. Ask him if he feels these injuries are inevitable in a period drama, and he says, “Yes, that's absolutely true we keep getting hurt, not only me but my other co-stars also. I was shooting one sequel, where I cut myself and was bleeding profusely. However, I finished the scene and then rushed to the hospital. There are a lot of tough situations when you can get hurt, but at the end of the day, the result is good and you enjoy yourself. You are appreciated and all the pain goes away. I also got a lot of bruises and cracks everywhere because of the rocks, whenever you are in the water you won't realize how deep you go.”

However, he isn’t complaining. Action still remains Hrishikesh’s favorite genre. “I think action activities are always fun and also keeps you fit. I love doing these kinds of shows. They are not the typical saas-bahu sagas, though I have done Saas-Bahu shows in the past as well. It's not like I run away from them but I love doing action on screen. I have done action in CID for so many years and also in Special Bureau and Sakshi on Sony. The action in Porus is totally different. In the previous shows, I used to fight with my hands and run around. But in historical shows, it's different. We have sword fights and horses,” he says.

Another special thing about Hrishikesh’s look in Porus in that it is very different from others shows. “I have gone for a makeover because it's been 15 or 16 years that I have not changed my look much. I have always kept a clean-shaven look in romantic, action and saas-bahu shows. This is the first time I thought of changing my look. We all have worked very hard on the look. So I tried doing that and we have succeeded. People hardly recognize me in my new look, and half the job is done,” he says.