Veteran actor Neena Gupta opened up on her role in the popular series Panchayat and said that there are many women like Manju Devi in different parts of the country. The third season of the show recently released on Amazon Prime Video where Neena returns as Manju Devi, the Phulera village head in Uttar Pradesh. She is the village head on paper but it's her husband (Raghubir Yadav) who is known as the 'Pradhan' and handles all the administrative responsibilities.

In an interview with PTI, the actor said, "Characters are often inspired by real-life. There are still many women like Manju devi everywhere around us. She is very satisfied with her household things; she has no ambition. Pradhan (Yadav) is working on her behalf, people liked it and that’s how women in India do it in rural or urban places. So, women relate to me, to Manju devi.”

The show is directed by Deepak Kumar Mishra and written by Chandan Kumar. It also stars Jitendra Kumar, Chandan Roy and Faisal Malik. The first season of the show aired on Prime Video on April 2020.

Neena also starred recently in the film Kaagaz 2 alongside Satish Kaushik, Anupam Kher and Darshan Kumar.