MUMBAI: The messages and comments that Hrishikesh Pandey is receiving on social media and by word of mouth around his portrayal of negative character in Yeh Rishta kya kehlata hai has been positive. This is the first time the actor is playing such a part, a major shift from his successful good cop Inspector Sachin in CID. While he was concerned how the audience would react to his new role, going by the reactions now, Pandey is over the moon.
 
 “Given the situation, I am not stepping out much or meeting a lot of people so that first-hand experience isn’t there, but I am getting many messages on social media. My family, relatives, and friends also have been saying nice things and tell me what they get to hear from others. Sometimes I get hate messages from viewers because of what my character does on the show, someone wrote don’t behave like this with Sirat, there was another who was like why are you creating problems for others? All this means I have been successful enough with my performance,” he sounds happy.
 
Pandey says the transition from Inspector Sachin to Mukesh Rathod was not difficult for him as an artiste, he was anxious if the audience would be able to get over with the positive image that he had in the hit show CID.
 
 “It has been the longest-running and well appreciated. Every character of that show is etched in people’s memory so yes I was a bit worried if the audience will be able to accept me as Mukesh Rathod. But thankfully they did,” says Pandey.
 
CID still enjoys reruns in many channels and different regional languages. The ratings of these reruns are good enough.
 
 “People still identify me with that role. I feel indebted to have got such an opportunity in my career. I miss being part of the show. The entire team became like a family. In fact that was the only show that Lata Mangeshkar ji used to watch. In fact she still watches the repeat telecast of CID. I hope we bring it back again,” he adds.

As an artiste, what are the kinds of roles that he finds satisfying we ask. “I am artiste who finds pleasure in variety and challenging parts. I need to find that interesting spark in a character to do say yes to it. I have always followed my heart in this matter. When you play a character you should believe in, you should be totally convinced and at the same time excited to bring it to life, I need to go through these three things before I take up a part. How essential the character is to the plot, whether it’s meaty or not matter more than screen time,” he ends.