After his breakout performance in a supporting role of a street-smart hustler in Shahid Kapoor headliner Farzi (2023), actor Bhuvan Arora takes on frontman duties as an earnest cop in his recently released ZEE5 series, Janaawar—The Beast Within. The actor feels that both the characters, Firoz in Farzi and Hemant in Janaawar, are different from each other, not just in terms of their occupation but also as people. “If they sit together, they will hate each other,” says Bhuvan as he explains how he builds his characters in a way that they seem differentiable human beings. He also mentions his supporting roles in the Tamil action thriller, Amaran (2024) and Kartik Aaryan’s biographical-drama, Chandu Champion (2024) or the more prominent one of a struggling college student in the web-series, Fisaddi (2024). “For every new character that I play, I have to unlearn all the previous ones. It is like a painting; you have to start from scratch. The canvas has to be empty,” he says.

Bhuvan emphasises on a character’s dialect to showcase the differentiation. It took the shape of a rusty flamboyance in Firoz, who spoke with a rough Bambaiya flair, while in Janaawar, Bhuvan maintains a stout Chhattisgarhi accent. The actor says that he cannot operate without mastering the language. “I sit with the language coach to understand the dialect and make it sound authentic while also keeping it accessible to a larger audience,” he says. Sharing an anecdote from his debut film, Maneesh Sharma’s Shuddh Desi Romance (2013), the actor recollects how he went to Jaipur some days before the shoot was set to commence, where he would interact with the local people to understand the dialect and mannerisms. “Acting tab charam-seema par thi (Acting was at its peak then),” he jokes as he had just come out of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). So, when he gave his first shot, inculcating the local dialect, Maneesh walked up to Bhuvan. “He said, ‘What you did was good. But this is a Hindi film. Don’t make it so earthy that it looks like a regional movie,'” Bhuvan recollects with a smile.

Apart from nuances in the spoken word, the local flavour in Janaawar also comes from its rural setting, with most of it taking place inside a police station. The series is edited and directed by Sachindra Vats, who is known for editing more than a thousand episodes of the popular crime-drama television show, C.I.D, apart from his work in films. He says that his experience in editing helped him when he ventured into direction. “We had a very short time period to shoot Janaawar. So, I knew exactly how much to shoot, where to cut, and what to keep during the production,” shares Sachindra. Bhuvan adds, “I really think editors make great directors. During the shoot, Sachindra sir would speak to me with gestures as he would tell me which shot he was going to keep and what would be cut. He started thinking of the edit while shooting on set.” The crispness is apparent in the length of the episodes, which are capped at under thirty minutes. Sachindra says it was a decision taken by the streaming platform, keeping in mind the decreasing attention spans of audiences post-Covid. “Having an episode length of 40-45 minutes is difficult these days, as people have the option to switch and watch something else. So, we tried to keep it tight,” he says.

The show packs a lot into its short runtime, blending personal battles, adding mythological touches, and also tackling caste discrimination. Bhuvan’s protagonist Hemant belongs to an oppressed caste and is reminded of his identity by his peers and even people in the village. “Casteism still exists in our society. Even if people don’t say it openly, it is still present in our minds. We wanted to portray that without being preachy,” says Sachindra. Bhuvan says that he didn’t look at Hemant through his own lens. “If I do that, I will become sympathetic. I have to keep that aside and just imagine myself as the character who has been through oppression throughout his life,” adds the actor.

With Janaawar, Bhuvan also steps into playing a lead role, a term which he doesn’t like to associate with his work. “I feel it derails you from the crux of what you love to do. So, I don’t think it’s my show alone. It is a collaborative effort. I am not the kind of actor who thinks they are above the story,” he opines. But doesn’t he desire to play more such prominent roles? He replies in the positive and adds, “You always want the story to be from your perspective. I am not going to be a saint and tell you that I was happy with what I was getting before. That’s a lie.” The actor feels that there are multiple reasons to do a film or a show. “Sometimes you pick a supporting role because you want to work with the director or the project pays you well or the scale is big,” he says. “It’s not that I wake up every day and think, ‘Today I am going to act for a supporting role’. I am putting in the same effort for a one-scene role or an entire show that is mounted on me. It’s just that for a bigger role, you get to use your acting chops more. You feel happier as an actor,” concludes Bhuvan.