A series is endearing to a viewer for the freshness it offers. At least, that’s the story of the first season. A second season is like a second helping, one wants more of the same. The third is the real tricky territory. A balance has to be made. What more can this world offer, without crumbling on itself? Everybody wants what the screenwriting manuals suggest: “Old wine in a new bottle.”
The third season of Panchayat has reportedly crossed 12 million views in the week of its release. The show’s first instalment premiered in April 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic was starting to spread its tentacles. With a rapidly changing reality outside the window, with its nostalgia, its old-world charm, Panchayat comforted its viewers in their living rooms. The series also got its lead Jitendra Kumar aka Jeetu noticed by an older audience, at a time when he was contained in the smartphone screen of the TVF-watching-teenager. We speak to Jitendra about how life has changed for him over the seasons, his newfound audience and how the Madhya Pradesh village, the series has been shot in, has evolved over the years.
