Trailer launch of second season of Panchayat held

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The setting at the J.W. Marriott’s Mahi was replete with village props including festoons, the North Indian cot made of wood and ropes (charpai) and sundry other backdrops and items. After all, it was the trailer launch of the second season of The Viral Fever’s Panchayat, which will be streamed on Amazon Prime Video from May 20.

The first season, which was streamed in 2020 amidst the pandemic, was a welcome relief from the standard crime fare that the Indian web scene was replete with, or the rarer, often boring romances. A superb, rural comedy with subtle messages, Panchayat stormed the nation, and a second season was very much in order, even though there was a hint of a cliffhanger of sorts in the last episode.

The saga of an engineering graduate who is forced to take up a humble job in a village when he wants to go abroad, and what happens next, was loaded with earthy, often hilarious, humor and all its characters came to be loved by the nation. They are now repeated in this season, also written by Chandan Kumar and created and directed by Deepak Kumar Mishra, who were both present.

The cast too is repeated, with protagonist Jitendra Kumar, the village pradhan (chief) essayed by veteran Raghuveer Yadav, the rest including Neena Gupta (who was absent), Chandan Roy (who left after his introduction as he had a flight to catch), Faisal Malik and others.

Raghuveer Yadav, who first made a mark in the 1988 TV serial Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne, said that Panchayat was about village life very similar to his roots in Madhya Pradesh, after which he had also lived in Rajasthan, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. He was about three years old when a man selling papad would sing out his wares, and his initiation into singing and music also came from there.

However, he never forced a career in his other talents like singing and writing songs or poems and was content with harnessing those gifts only when anyone wanted him to do so. By the same token, he never believed in doing too much work in acting as well.

Jitendra Kumar added that the senior actor would always play the flute on sets. He was enthralled by the series and his entire team and stated that destiny would decide how long Abhishek (his character) would live in Fulera (the village shown in the film). He refused to elaborate on the contents of the new season and wanted everyone to watch it.

The new character of a feisty woman, enacted by veteran Sunita Rajwar, has been added and also promises more fun. Another fresh development will be Abhishek’s romantic track, of which there was a hint in the last season.

As the Amazon official who was present said, the response to the first season was beyond expectations and now they had great confidence in the simplicity of the narrative scoring again.