Ahead of Pitchers 2, Naveen Kasturia recalls when he realised first season had become rage: ‘More than a thousand students cheered when I walked on stage’

“I realsied the magnitude of its popularity when I went to a college in Goa after the fifth episode had come out. There were more than a thousand students there and we were there to speak on that topic.

“There were already other speakers there but the moment we entered the hall, people just wanted to see us on stage. The entire crowd erupted and that’s the time I realised this has gone to some other level.”

Pitchers was written by Biswapati Sarkar and directed by Amit Golani. The show followed the story of four friends, Naveen, Jitu, Yogi and Mandal, who quit their jobs in order to develop their own start-up company.

“I remember going on stage and I wasn’t able to speak– because people just didn’t stop cheering for good ten minutes. I had mike in my hands but couldn’t say anything, I was just waiting for them to stop. I was emotional, I didn’t know what to say because I had not anticipated something like this,” he says.

Pitchers season 2 marks the return of Naveen, Arunabh Kumar and Abhay Mahajan, while Jitendra Kumar has not been revealed in the first trailer.

Naveen says since Pitchers last aired seven years ago, he was asked “innumerable times” about the status of the second season. “I can’t even give it a number how many times I was asked this. But I feel extremely happy and excited that its finally coming. I am also very nervous. I hope people also like it as much they liked the first season.”

Despite the immense popularity and acclaim of season one, Naveen says there was no temptation to repeat what had worked previously. “I wasn’t thinking in the direction that, ‘We acted like this in season one, we shouldn’t do that in season two’. If this is the script we have, if this is how they have imagined the character, then you just stick to it.

“Because we also know the character once we watch the entire story. But there was no temptation.  I like to not ape something that’s done earlier. There’s no formula so what has worked initially may not this time,” he adds.

Pitchers season 2, directed by Vaibhav Bundhoo and also starring Ridhi Dogra, is set to premiere on December 23 on ZEE5.