Since her re-entry to tinsel town with Badhaai Ho, Neena Gupta has been enjoying being back on the screens and at work. Her latest screen outing is as Manju Devi in Panchayat, an Amazon Prime Video and TVF original.
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Speaking about her role and what inspired her to take it up, she said, “Manju Devi is the elected Pradhan of the Panchayat. She is extremely relaxed and doesn’t care about anything else, even her official duties are handled by her husband, who regards himself as the unofficial Pradhan of the village. She is a simple housewife who is only concerned about family responsibilities like cooking a good meal for her husband, getting her daughter married, and is quite content with it. The only time her character actually is affected by the situation is when Abhishek (played by Jitendra Kumar) taunts her about the fact that the other Pradhans are doing their jobs and she isn’t. Even after the humiliating conversation, she doesn’t rebel or exhibit her anger but handles the situation very calmly.”
The interaction between the two characters is one of the highlights of the series, and the actress echoes this sentiment. She said, “The way the entire scene is written, it says a lot about the character without hitting you in the head. This one scene was the most captivating and impactful moment for my character and made me say yes to the role immediately.”
Besides Neena Gupta, the show also stars Jitendra Kumar a.k.a Jeetu bhaiya. Both actors were seen together in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan. Panchayat is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.