From one crime drama to another

A still from the series

When Sultan of Delhi came actor Anjumm Sharma's way, it brought with it a heavy dose of nostalgia. The actor says Milan Luthria's crime drama, with its larger-than-life characters and dialoguebaazi, took him back to the '70s films. "People are telling me my performance was honest as well as entertaining. The show [reminds one] of the '70s, the golden era of movies, when you had films like Kaala Patthar [1979], Deewar [1975] and Don [1978]. The 10-year-old kid in me, who has grown up watching these films, was very happy. I knew I would be playing a character with a certain amount of heroism," says Sharma, who hoped to reach a wider audience with his flamboyant act in the Tahir Raj Bhasin-led series.

Looking forward, the actor hopes to keep the momentum going with Mirzapur. The third season of the popular crime drama - featuring Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Shweta Tripathi and Rasika Dugal - is slated to drop early next year. Mentioning that the upcoming edition will heavily focus on the power tussle between primary characters, Sharma attributes the three-year-plus gap between the two seasons to the creators' relentless pursuit of a gripping story. "It was important for the makers to crack a correct third instalment after two highly successful seasons. That's one of the reasons this season took a lot of time. Our director [Gurmmeet Singh] was initially not very happy with the material, so there was rewriting going on. He then locked a story structure - we got the starting and end point, and then we knew how to develop the season."

Reuniting with the cast was an emotional ride for Sharma, who heaps praise on leading men Tripathi and Fazal. "I have such great respect not only for the actor that Ali is, but also for the person he is. With Pankaj-ji, it's like chatting with someone in your living room. We would talk about different things and wouldn't even realise when we started shooting."