Jitendra Kumar of Chaman Bahaar, small-town India’s new hero

Nonika Singh

As the insider-outsider debate rages on, here stands an outsider, actor Jitendra Kumar aka Jeetu, confident in his skin and grateful for the opportunities that have come his way. This viral sensation and actor of many a film, including Chaman Bahaar, which is currently streaming on Netflix, puts everything, including nepotism, in perspective. Earnest on screen, he sounds equally sincere off it, not a dash of artifice, whether he talks about his personal journey or The Viral Fever (TVF), which provided him the platform to showcase his talent. On the proliferation and penetration of digital culture too, he, the face of TVF, offers a deep insight.

An integral part of several successful TVF projects, such as TVF Pitchers, Tripling, Kota Factory and Permanent Roommates, Jitendra can only see the upside of digital revolution in the entertainment industry. To begin with, TVF might have been one of the pioneers in the field which is today dominated by big players, but he says, “Even back then we knew that Amazon and Netflix would be coming to India and when they do, we would not be competing against but collaborating with them.” Today, his much acclaimed series, Panchayat, produced by TVF, is streaming on Amazon Prime.

Talking of Panchayat, he adds, “The series which had the ’90s feel came at a time when lockdown had just started. We knew that whoever watches the series will like its light-hearted tone, but didn’t realise it would reach so many people.” Lockdown may be a grim reminder of the adverse times that we are living in, but one big advantage he can see from artistes’ point of view is that “people have been voraciously consuming content digitally.”

Hence, though Chaman Bahaar, incidentally the first film he signed, may have been created for cinema halls, he is happy its digital premiere happened at a time when more and more people are likely to watch it. But is the undisputed star of digital world lured by cinema? “It is a medium that all actors want to experience,” he frankly says, but insists he is not discounting the power of digital entertainment. After all, millions are rooting for him on social media only because of that and got him movies like Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan.

In playing a gay character and romancing (kissing too) a man, he says he had no qualms. “Once I read the script, I knew it would work.” Interestingly, on the sets if he feels something is not working out, he immediately turns to his co-actors or directors for guidance. It is the same set of people whose criticism, positive or negative, he values. He doesn’t follow reviews. “At the end of the day, a critic too watches like an audience.”

Of course, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan opened to favourable reviews and box office success. However, before it could translate into tangible gains, the lockdown was announced. Thus the doors that could have opened didn’t really. But he doesn’t quite agree that Bollywood slams its doors on those without a family name. He explains, “See, if tomorrow I were to make a film and my friend was an actor, my first choice might be him. If another actor were to reach me, it would be challenging for him. It is the same hurdle we all face.” The trick, he asserts, lies in detaching oneself from one’s work, not think of it all the time and not get swamped by the nepotism, outsider debate.

“Every actor gets an opportunity to prove himself,” he says. Skeptics may think he has been caught in some kind of a stereotype, playing a small-town character each time, but he counters by saying: “I think all my characters are very different from each other. Besides, there are so many stories of small towns that need to be told.” Who knows that better than a small town boy from Khairthal in Rajasthan whose real life story too reads like a film script?

An IIT engineer, he was bitten by the acting bug in his student days. The actor in him has now leapfrogged into digital space with a splash and force. Even as he says “I can’t change my face”, he has worn many faces, including that of Arjun Kejriwal (parody version of Arvind Kejriwal), Jeetu bhaiya of Kota Factory, Aman Tripathi of Shubh Mangal Zyada… Jitendra has mastered the knack of getting into the skin of his characters and feels relatable yet different each time.