‘Content rooted in rural life of UP gaining popularity’

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh's rural life is resonating strongly with the audience today, as people want to go back to where they belong and connect with the state's language, dialects and everyday cultural details.These views were expressed by actors Faisal Malik, Chandan Roy, Raghubir Yadav, Sanvikaa and Sunita Rajwar during a session on ‘Voices from the rural ground: Rural transformation in Uttar Pradesh' at the TOI's UP Transformation Dialogues, on Friday.
"Content rooted in Uttar Pradesh's rural life is gaining popularity because audiences are connecting with the state's language and dialects. Also, writing is the real hero. The way a writer writes a script, imagines a character and then finds someone to play the role is a heroic task," said actor Faisal Malik.Citing the film ‘Dabangg', he said the UP-flavoured Hindi used in the movie was widely loved and led to more productions adopting similar speech patterns.Referring to the web series ‘Panchayat', Malik said the show reflects Uttar Pradesh through a blend of accents rather than a single city-specific dialect, calling it a "mix duniya" that viewers accepted.Veteran actor Raghubir Yadav said, "It is a reality that people eventually reconnect with their roots. I come from a rural background. I drove bullock carts and then went to Bollywood and returned to village memories while playing the role of Pradhan in ‘Panchayat' web series."Actor Chandan Roy said knowledge of language was essential, and indigenous speech carried a distinct warmth. He said he felt the need to preserve words he heard from his grandmother, adding that ‘Panchayat' also used certain Bihari words that were rarely heard."I am happy to bring the words, culture and style of my region in his work. Effective communication matters more than perfect pronunciation," he said.Talking about playing the role of a girl from rural India, actress Sanvikaa said, "I am from Jabalpur, and my schooling and everything is from the city, but I saw the rural India side through my grandmother and maternal grandmother. The role I played was taken from my own sister, who stayed silent and scared, like girls from rural India are."Discussing the challenge of getting similar roles when one gets popularity for playing a character, actress Sunita Rajwar said, "New artists often face typecasting, where one role leads to similar offers. I treat it as a challenge to perform familiar character types differently. Even younger industry professionals are taking risks to create new and unique work."