The young and good looking Himanshu Soni who has been winning hearts with his portrayal of the lead character of Prince Siddhartha in Zee TV’s Buddha (Spice Studios) gets talking with Tellychakkar.com, wherein he describes his happiness of being a part of this project and how lucky he feels to be chosen by Zee TV and producer B K Modi to essay Buddha. Excerpts: How has been your experience of playing the character of the spiritual leader-Buddha? Well, it’s an opportunity of a lifetime. As an actor, we learn that every character has nine ras and I am so lucky to have gotten the chance to emote it all with this role; that too just at the beginning of my career. I am really feeling great and want to thank God for giving me the chance to play the lead in this show. How did you prepare for the role? Initially, I really had to work on my body and look my part every bit. And to do justice to my character, I also got myself trained in martial arts. I was selected from among more than 300 people and it was my duty to not let my producers down and give my 100 per cent. Since this is your first show as the lead, did you have any apprehensions of doing a historical? Not really! This is such a huge banner that anyone would be obliged to be on board. And secondly, since it’s a definite 52 episodes project, I know that I am not playing this character for life. Also getting to play a lead role and that too of Buddha is definitely an honour. I am still learning and with such talented people around, I am only getting better with every passing day. Did you have any kind of knowledge about Buddha earlier? Any of his teachings that really touched you? Every one of us has studied about this great man in childhood. But after I signed for the show, I read books on him and got to know a lot about him and his great teachings. The best thing about his teachings is that he always maintained that you should live in the present. You might be a king today and lose everything tomorrow, so be good to all and do no harm. At 24, I am glad to have learnt so much about life which will help me in my future. Tell us more about your journey as an actor? I am basically from Jaipur and came to Mumbai in 2011. Thankfully I got some projects soon. Though earlier I did Dwarkadeesh and was also a part of Parvarish, I wasn’t getting noticed much. Next I did some episodics and cameos. But then, I wanted to do something concrete and suddenly the chance of Buddha came in. So how is it going with the show so far? Well, it’s going really great. Every actor is so dedicated and talented that we hardly feel the pressure of working. All of us are ready to push our boundaries and bring this show to the top. I would like to share an incident where we were shooting in a jungle and a cobra snake got into my costume, but you won’t believe I didn’t panic for a second. There is this divine energy around us that keeps us all focused and at peace. And what about the feedback that you have been getting from people? (Laughs) On the contrary, you should tell me about that. Honestly speaking, I am too scared to even watch my show. I always make it a point to only watch repeats after I have got the reviews about the episode from all. You must also be getting a lot of adulation from the public? Definitely, and since our show is a global one, people from all over the world are watching it and loving us a lot. Since we are in our costumes every time, people don’t usually mob me when I go out, but they do recognize and stare at me. All said and done, you definitely enjoy the popularity but I will make sure that success does not get into my head. Himanshu, since you spoke about the show being a definite one, what are your next plans? For the time being, I am fully concentrating on Buddha and have not really planned anything else. But being associated to such a big banner which has been churning out some quality work on both TV and films, I am sure they have planned something for me. And since they plan to make a film on Buddha, can we hope to see you playing a lead in that too? I cannot say that surely, but yes I can only hope that they sign me for that (smiles). And I would take this chance to thank my producer B K Modi and Ridhwana ma'am for helping me throughout the journey so much and Zee TV Chairman, Subhash Chandra, my director, DOP and the creative head. It is all because of them that I have been able to achieve all this.