Panchayat’s Jitendra Kumar says villagers thought they were ‘crazy’ for shooting in ‘deadly heat’: ‘They don’t want inauspicious scenes…’

Sharing how the villagers themselves avoid the afternoon sun, the actor said, “Even villagers don’t come out during those hours. They finish their work before 9 in the morning and then come out in the evening. They know that this heat is deadly, but in that heat, we shoot for the show.” Adding to Jitendra’s experience, the show’s director, Deepak Kumar Mishra, said, “They tell us, ‘Are you crazy? Why don’t you work in the morning and in the evening?'”

When asked if they ever face demands from the villagers and about the team’s equation with them, Jitendra said, “They sometimes ask us to show their houses in the show.”

Deepak added, “They often ask us to show only positive, auspicious scenes when we shoot in their house. They don’t want fighting or any inauspicious scenes to be shot in their house. Sometimes, they promise to give their house for shooting but refuse the next day. They demand an appearance in the show in exchange for allowing us to shoot in their house. One time, a guy did the same thing to us. I asked him what he could do. He said, ‘I can eat burning camphor.’ That guy is in the title credits of the show.”

Panchayat Season 3 is set to release on Prime Video on May 28. The show has been a hit since its release in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Season 2 received an even more positive response from the audience and won most of the nominations under the Comedy Series category at the inaugural ceremony of the Filmfare OTT Awards.