Lockdown effect: Bhairavi Raichura is missing acting, especially after watching re-runs of Balika Vadhu and Hum Paanch

TV actor Bhairavi Raichura is glad that two of her shows — Hum Paanch and Balika Vadhu — are back on the small screen and she gets extremely nostalgic talking about those.

In the 1990s, she was loved as the tomboyish Kajal bhai of Hum Paanch, and cut to 2008, Bhairavi Raichura made her mark in her role as a doting mother Bhagwati in Balika Vadhu. In a career dotted by several television shows, these were two distinctly different, but iconic roles that the actor got to play - something she says she’s eternally grateful for.

Actor Bhairavi Raichura has played extremely diverse roles in a comedy show and a socially relevant drama.

And now that amid the lockdown spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic, both these shows have made a comeback on TV, it has sparked a desire in Raichura to be back to face the cameras herself again.

“I’ve not been acting for six to seven years now,” says the actor, who launched her own production house a few years ago. “Now, I’m actually missing acting, especially after watching both the shows. I was like ‘Oh no, I am missing acting’. Aisa hota hai na... So let’s see.”

 

She’d love to act in a web show. “These days, the web has come in a huge way in our country, and it’s so nice that limited series are happening. There are great roles coming in for all age groups, so yes, it’s a great time for actors and even writers... Let’s see, you never know (when I act). As of now, I haven’t said yes or even thought of acting, but you never know,” the actor teases.

For now, she’s gladly sinking into nostalgia watching her shows, especially Hum Paanch, which she took up as a teenager. Now when she looks back at it, it seems to her as if “it’s from another lifetime”. 

Asked about the funkiest thing about the role, she says, “It was the role itself! There was no role like that in Indian cinema or television back then. So I feel extremely privileged, thankful and humbled that I got to play it. I was very raw and new, I didn’t know much about the craft of acting then, and neither was there any reference for the character... But everyone on the sets helped me a lot... It was like a workshop for me.”

 

Besides spending her time in the lockdown reading and helping her mother with household chores, Raichura is also watching some re-runs of shows like Mahabharat and Buniyaad nowadays. She feels it gives a sense of nostalgia to those who’ve seen them in the past, and for the new gen, it’s like watching a new “different show”.

“Different because, every decade has a style of producing content... The simplicity, the innocence, all that is so beautiful, raw and fresh I feel. I know the graphics are not that great, neither are the costumes or production design...We’ve progressed a lot when it comes to cinema and stuff, but see, basically the content is so nice. So, it’s okay, unn saari cheezon pe dhyan nai jaata. Basically, the content is so well-written,” she adds.