Not easy to reject good money, but wanted to do something different: Divyenndu on avoiding typecasting

It was an amazingly horrible phase, says actor Divyenndu describing the time when sex comedies were being made in the industry and he was getting some of those offers. Describing his character of Dev in the show as a lost soul, Divyenndu said he needed a director like Anshuman and co-stars like Samrat and Vicky to draw out the complexities of the role with nuance.

It was an amazingly horrible phase, says actor Divyenndu describing the time when sex comedies were being made in the industry and he was getting some of those offers. He turned them down as he wanted to not get boxed in. Divyenndu had a minor role in Madhuri Dixit's 2007 movie ''Aaja Nachle'' before breaking out with buddy comedy ''Pyaar Ka Punchnama'', where he played the role of Nishant ''Liquid'' Aggarwal. What followed was a string of comedic performances in films ''Chashme Baddoor'', ''Toilet: Ek Prem Katha'' and ''Batti Gul Meter Chalu'' and such roles kept on coming on. ''There was a time in the film industry when sex comedies were made. It was an amazingly horrible phase and I hope it never comes back. There were a lot of offers for that and they used to offer good money. ''I was also a new kid. So, to refuse people, opportunity, money.... It affects people's ego. It wasn't easy to deal with all that. But I knew that I can do something else. I'm capable of it,'' Divyenndu told PTI in an interview. The 42-year-old, who impressed critics with his turn as trigger-happy gangster Munna Tripathi in ''Mirzapur'' and later as a famous bandit in ''The Railway Men'', said he is clear-eyed about what he wants to achieve as an actor. ''I'm not doing anyone a favour by being an actor. I'm doing all this for myself. An artist is always a very selfish being... If nothing else, I might end up doing 'nautanki' in some corner. But we can't live without this inner fire. So, that was one thing that made me stop the car and get out of it because I realised that I am standing alone on highway without any help.'' Divyenndu, an FTII graduate, now stars as the estranged son of a boxing champion returning home following a tragedy in Netflix's new series ''Glory'', which reunites him with ''Mirzapur'' director Karan Anshuman. Also starring Suvinder Pal Vicky of ''Kohrra'' fame and Pulkit Samrat, ''Glory'' is a sports thriller about the gritty, high-stakes world of boxing. The story, set in the heartland of Haryana, begins with the mysterious death of Nihal Singh, India's hope for an Olympic boxing medal. As ambition collides with rage and revenge takes over, ''Glory'' unravels a volatile web of relationships, power, and betrayal where the fight for glory is as personal as it is dangerous. Describing his character of Dev in the show as a ''lost soul'', Divyenndu said he needed a director like Anshuman and co-stars like Samrat and Vicky to draw out the complexities of the role with nuance. ''From where he comes from, this guy has a lot of baggage as if he lives in a nightmare and even when he wakes up, the nightmare continues. He is someone who doesn't want to know anyone in the world. He just exists without any meaning. ''I think the age where he needed that kind of guidance and support and love is the age where he got lost... I had to be very careful stepping into his shoes because he is such a massive ball of energy that if you don't handle it properly, it can totally crush you.'' According to Divyenndu, actors are often credited more than their merit. He believes that it is usually the writers and directors who lay the groundwork and chart the course that actors follow in bringing a character to life. For ''Glory'', he credited creators Anshuman and Karmanya Ahuja, who have written the series with Vaibhav Vishal, for coming up with well-fleshed out characters. ''Karmanya and our dialogue writer Vaibhav spent 16-18 months fine tuning everything... But what happens is that actors get the credit for a dialogue that's written by someone else... It is true that we give life to what's written but what we get in return is more.'' ''Glory'' also stars Jannat Zubair, Ashutosh Rana, Sikandar Kher, Kunal Thakur, Sayani Gupta, Yashpal Sharma and Kashmira Pardeshi in pivotal roles. The show premieres on Friday.