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“Life has come a full circle”

- Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Donning the hat of detective: Television serial star Nitesh Pandey .

Delhi is fast becoming the next destination for films, Nitesh Pandey tells Madhur Tankha

After his role of a private eye on television in the 1990s ended abruptly, he had been longing to portray a similar character. Film and television actor Nitesh Pandey is finally donning the detective's hat in the brand new comedy serial “Jaankhilavan Jasoos” on SAB TV.

Nitesh, who is synonymous with soap operas like “Saaya”, “Astitva” and “Justajoo”, says though ‘Jaankhilavan Jasoos' is his first big role on the small screen as the lead he didn't have to do much preparation.

“My homework as an actor started 15 years ago. I re-drew on my experience as an actor in theatre, television and films to portray this unusual character who is a detective by default. I played a detective in serial ‘Tejas” way back in 1995 but after a few episodes BITV ran into trouble because the satellite was lost.”

The soap opera was produced by Aziz Mirza and Shekhar Kapoor was the creative head. The episodes were repeated and Nitesh also tried to revive the series on his own but could not. “The character has been haunting me all these years. Thanks to the new series, life has come a full circle.”

Showcasing a blend of thrill and comedy, “Jaankhilavan Jasoos” revolves around the investigation team of three characters. “As chief detective Jaankhilavan Jasoos, commonly known as JJ, I pretend to be a great detective who has a knack for investigating things. Actually JJ is a buffoon who does light hearted comedy. The poker faced hilarious comedian has been conceived to make viewers laugh with his quirky one-liners and his weird theories of criminal investigation. As a bumbling detective, he makes more blunders and fewer deductions at the crime scene but still manages to solve his cases by sheer luck.”

One aspect of JJ's personality that Nitesh shares with the fictitious character is absentmindedness. “I forgot my mobile phone and car key at the airport. Hopefully I will retrieve them tonight,” he says.

The idea behind the Charlie Chaplin get-up and hat and the unusual style of walking is to make the character appear realistic. There has been a deliberate attempt to make JJ an identifiable character. The way he behaves city dwellers will relate him with neighbourhood uncles.

For the first time in his television career, he shot the promo before the actual shooting for the soap opera. His role is opposite to Pankaj Kapoor's popular serial ‘Karamchand' that was aired in 1980s. “Pankaj was a good detective who pretended to be a buffoon. He demonstrated his sensitivity and intelligence as an actor in ‘Karamchand' that was far ahead of its time.”

Working day in and day out on a serial becomes monotonous at times. “To prevent monotony, we have made every episode in a different way. In fact, each episode is like a film with new actors, situations and clothes. Frankly speaking, television is a big gamble in which production and technical team do the research. As it is a long drawn out process. In films stars call the shots and on television channels dictate terms. But for my new show, the production team members have cooperated with me. I get the feeling that I am in the midst of my family. They are down to earth and don't show high handedness.”

Detective JJ is accompanied by his beautiful assistant -- Monalisa enacted by Sonali Nikam and his office assistant Ching Fung Lee aka Vinod Rai.

For the past one and a half years, Nitesh had taken a sabbatical from films and television for his first love – theatre. “During this period, I did two plays in Hindi and one in English. Alyque Padamsee's theatre production ‘Love Life and Madness' in which I acted opposite Sharon Prabhakar was well received. Another play of mine with Suddha Chandra was staged in Mumbai and Dubai.”

Nitesh's first brush with theatre was at his alma mater -- St. Xavier's in Mumbai. The theatre done during free period at school groomed him as an actor. He also did amateur theatre.

However, theatre personality Satyendra Dubey was instrumental in honing his skills. “We would call him National School of Dubey equating him with the reputed National School of Drama. I learnt different nuances of acting from this internationally-reputed teacher. An important thing that I learnt from my guru is that humour is always based on truth and this is what keeps tickling the audience. One has to walk a tightrope between not overdoing it and keeping it subtle,” says Nitesh, who also formed a theatre group Aalap.

Undoubtedly, in his innings in Bollywood it is the critically-acclaimed “Khosla ka Ghosla” that has given him ultimate satisfaction as an actor.

“After the film was premiered, Anupam Kher walked up to me and hugged me. The film made a huge impact and all the actors – Anupamji and Boman Irani did full justice to their characters.”

However, in Shah Rukh Khan's “Om Shanti Om” Nitesh's role was chopped off. “As actors, we are always selfish and want to play the meatiest part. For the film I shot for 22 days. But when I watched the film only two days of work was shown. About nine scenes were deleted because in the second half Shah Rukh gets his memory back and the audience expects him to seek revenge from Arjun Rampal.”

A Mumbaite, Nitesh says Delhi is fast becoming the next destination for films. “Increasingly, the city's colourful streets, colonies and farmhouses in Gurgaon are being shot. I recently shot in Delhi with actors from the National School of Drama.”

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