The struggle of Jeetu Bhaiya, who came into the world of entertainment after studying engineering from IIT Kharagpur, is over. Jitendra Kumar, who came to Mumbai 10 years ago is the first digital star of the country. People now recognize Gittu of ‘Permanent Roommates’ as Sachiv Ji of ‘Panchayat’. He came to Mumbai under the guidance of his seniors from IIT. Now seeing his success, many engineers have also taken this path, but Jitendra Kumar says that earning money from acting is not easy here.
Jitendra Kumar
The son whom the family dreamed of making an engineer, left for Mumbai one day to become an artist. Jitendra Kumar’s family members were unhappy with this. Jitendra says, ‘I did coaching for two years by staying in Kota in 11th and 12th. Then studied at IIT Kharagpur. And there I met Biswapati Sarkar, who was a year senior and used to do street plays. He told me that after his studies, he is going to become a writer and not an engineer by going to Mumbai.’
Jitendra also believes that in our country, it is very important to have career counseling for children from childhood. He says, “Engineering studies are hard work. More than kid, his entire family works behind him. When an engineer becomes an actor, he goes through the basic process. If these things are known from the beginning, then choosing a career becomes easier.”
Jitendra Kumar
Jitendra came to Mumbai for the first time from his home by Garib Rath. He landed at Bandra Terminus and got confused in exit after landing on the platform. He says, ‘It took me half an hour to figure out how to get out of there. My mistake was that I had to go to Borivali but I didn’t get down. My college friend runs IIT coaching in Borivali, I had to stay there. I decided that I would keep six days a week for acting and one day for coaching. So I started job there first and acting together.’
Jitendra Kumar
The condition of Abhishek Tripathi, Sachivji of ‘Panchayat’, was similar to Jitendra Kumar’s in Mumbai for a long time. Jitendra explains, ‘It is not easy to earn money from acting. That is why in 2012, I had come here for three months to take stock of the situation before I decided to settle here. I understood that it would take time to make an identity here. It is good that at the same time YouTube was rising. We started showing our talent and then it happened that all the producers came with us and started saying that we also have to make something similar on digital.”
He further says, ‘According to me, camps are not needed, but it happens that if a camp is making an interesting film and you think that you are absolutely suitable for it, then I will definitely think that I get that character. What are OTTs, these are also different groups. These are Netflix, Amazon sub-groups. Every writer, every actor, every director tries to do something different. So whoever wants to do something different here has to be a part of different camps.’
