Those who admire Pradhanji's rooted existence in Prime Video's Panchayat remember him most from Mungerilal ke Haseen Sapne which aired on Doordarshan in 1989. It was only 13 episodes but left an impact on almost everyone who watched it. But then Pradhanji, played by Raghubir Yadav, acted in another 13-episode series next year, which he prefers. This series was Mullah Nasruddin. Yadav, a graduate of the National School of Drama (NSD) in Delhi and part of the repertory for 10 years, broke through spectacularly in Pradip Krishen's Massey Sahib in 1985, where he played a Christian clerk Francis Massey, who works for an English officer. Massey marries the tribal girl Saila, who is played by Arundhati Roy before she won a Booker Prize. It doesn't end well. Yadav is one of the few actors in the industry who have not been calcified or corrupted, staying true to his art, his "junoon" (passion). "This acting word is very dangerous. One cannot act, one has to just be," he says. It's a form of self preservation, he says, because if he had "commercialised" his craft, he would have been typecast as a comedian. "I don't want to be part of this bechnewala [selling] culture," he adds. Yadav has had a series of powerful roles on screen, from Bhura, the poultry farmer, in Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) to the manipulative brother in Peepli Live (2010). But Prime Video's Panchayat has returned him to everyone's hearts. Yadav, who worked for Parsi Theatre, travelling all over India for `2.50 a day at the beginning of his career, says he is not tempted by money. He values the three years he spent with the great Ebrahim Alkazi at NSD because it taught him the value of stagecraft, from make-up to carpentry, from music to lighting. He remembers missing only one class during those years, and that too on Diwali. He narrates the story as if it was yesterday: "I was washing my clothes and I remember Alkazi saab summoned me, and told me, 'Even if you are dying, you will have to come and do it in front of me'," he says. That is how important theatre was to him. Yadav loves Panchayat because it allows him to work with the same dedication and passion. And it is to this that audiences respond.

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