Exclusive - Pratiksha Lonkar gets candid about her new show Jigarbaaz, unique character 'Deshmukh Madam' and more

Actress Pratiksha Lonka is grabbing eyeballs with her performance as 'Deshmukh Madam' in the TV show Jigarbaaz. The actress is playing a character with grey shades in the show with perfection. In an exclusive chat with ETimes TV, Pratiksha spoke about resuming work post lockdown, accepting strong and unique roles, and playing a grey shade character on-screen.
Commenting on getting back to work after many months of lockdown, Pratiksha said, "It feels very lively to be back on set, working on your craft, doing the best that you love doing.I have previously worked with the same production house for my TV show Swarajya Rakshak Sambhaji. I enjoy a good rapport and comfort level with them. Also, because of the pandemic, it's not just the 'normal' life that has been affected but, a large part of our 'normal' life revolves around our craft of filmmaking and acting."
Revealing the reasons behind signing up the show, the seasoned actress said, "I was missing my craft during the lockdown and when Amol asked me whether I am interested in playing such a role which portrays the grey shade in such a way that the industry has never witnessed before, I had no second thought. Also, what interested me the most was the different style of narration. I have never come across such a vivid narration in my entire career. This propelled me to take up the project. The story revolves around the lives of a bunch of doctors - completely new yet relatable to the audience, which makes it an interesting watch."
Here's why Pratiksha feels her character 'Deshmukh Madam' is different from other grey characters before. She said, "Talking about my character, I am playing a politician. And talking about politicians, people are aware that this character will be argute and might do whatever it takes to fulfill her desires. And while writing theory, the writers also wanted to portray something out of the box. And when they approached me to play this role, it excited me. And the reason why it excited me the most was that every aspect of this character is different. Not only the way she dresses but also her attitude, body language, expressions, dialect, everything is different from what we usually see on television."
Pratiksha loves to experiment with her roles and this isn't an exception, too.
"There was hardly any major preparation as such for this character except for a few critical decisions. One of which was to keep it different from the stereotypical politicians that we grew up seeing on television or big screen. We had one thing decided that the character neither should be very fictional nor too real but somewhere in between. Because people will only watch the serial if they can connect to the story in some way or the other, also, there should be a unique style to the character because you have to appeal to the larger mass of this generation. I like to accept powerful yet unique roles. All these had been considered and worked upon before I played it on screen."
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