Hungry for more

Abhay Mahajan of Pitchers fame on his character in the second edition of the OG series and life in the interim

After seven years of waiting, TVF is back with the second season of Pitchers with Naveen Kasturia, Abhay Mahajan and Arunabh Kumar. Wondering why the fourth member of the foursome — Jitendra Kumar — is missing from the series? Makers claim that creative and logistical issues kept the actor away. While he will be missed in the crazy start-up story, Mahajan — who plays Saurabh Mandal in the OG series — claims that they were aware of his absence when they began reading the script two years ago. “We were not shooting, but we were in talks. So, we were aware of [Jeetu’s absence]. We were originally scheduled to shoot the series in September, but I was in France for a play. They had to push the April dates because I was getting married in May. So, we finally began shooting in June.”

A still from the show

Mahajan, who is an integral part of the foursome, was often the comic relief in the series. However, in the second edition, his character undergoes a massive change. “People won’t see the Mandal from the first season. In this season, my role is mounted in a different way. Their brief to me was that Mandal was the voice of reason in the trio. Naveen’s character is dreamy, Yogi [played by Kumar] is too romantic and Mandal is the one handling the s**t all the time,” says the actor, who was flooded with offers in 2015 when the show launched, but actively stayed away from the limelight.

Watch: Naveen Kasturia, Arunabh Kumar, Abhishek Banerjee and Gopal Dutt At The Trailer Launch Of Pitchers 2

In the seven years separating the two seasons, Mahajan did several independent Marathi films, joined a Tamil theatre group in Pondicherry, wrote the script of SonyLIV’s Marathi show Shanti Kranti, among other things. “When shows become popular, people come to know that you are an actor. After Pitchers, I tested for a lot of films, got shortlisted for several and some I didn’t get. There was a lot of work coming my way in the comedy space, which was something I was not too keen on doing because I wanted to experiment with different roles. Since Mandal [his character] had comic elements, sometimes the industry is less imaginative and are quick to typecast,” says the actor, who has been travelling to France and Belgium with the theatre group for his plays, has shot for a Tamil film, taught acting and conducted body awareness workshops for people. Mahajan claims that he was scared to come back to Mumbai. “I feel it is killing the artiste inside me. I was never out of work, but I wanted more after Pitchers. I think my appetite was much bigger than what was offered to me.”

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