Why Prithviraj Chauhan will always remain so close to me

A page from the personal diary of Anas Rashid When I finished with Kahiin Toh Hoga I kept dabbling with ideas and offers as to which character I should portray next. I would go for auditions after which I would try and live that character for a while but I knew something was missing… and I had no clue what it was. Then one day I got a call from Sagar Pictures. My immediate reaction to a running show was …. No way!!! Still my agent sold the idea of at least going through the process. The process in the selection of Prithviraj Chauhan was different…. My audition did not happen in Mumbai. I was taken to Baroda where I was exposed to a totally different set up than what I had been going through. After I came back from the audition I knew this was what I had waited for. That one thing that was missing every-time was in here …. challenge … heroism and a canvas to tap my talent. It was from that day that I started wishing for that phone call that would tell me when I would have to uproot myself and shift base to Film City Baroda. Uprooting myself was one of the most difficult tasks of all. I had a settled sphere of movement and comfort in Andheri. Moving to Baroda was a disturbing thought. Friends would often tell me how isolated and alien that place was for someone who had a comfortable life back in Mumbai. Debating with my personal apprehensions I reached Baroda and spent almost 16 months without any repentance. Prithviraj Chauhan brought a change in my life. I was enacting and living the life of a King engraved in the pages of history. Very soon people started seeing me as an extension of the historic hero and I noticed a reverence in the way people received me. But I was disturbed with a change that was in progress somewhere inside me. A moral obligation that I felt while playing one of the greatest warriors in Indian history and the secret behind his success. I started reading about the character more and more. I learnt one thing that success is like penance. You have to sacrifice a lot in the fire of achieving what you want. Prithviraj Chauhan is truly my hero. I lived the character under my skin. I started enjoying my solitude in the confines of my residence. At times that would reflect in my performance as Prithvi longed for Sanyogita. The shoot of PRC was quite different from the other shooting experiences I had. Scenes took me to the locations I had never been to. Thick forests, in lakes and rivers, fighting with wild animals. There was a lot of physical strain that was involved in shoots nearly every day. Slowly I developed immunity to it and started enjoying it as time passed. Then one day in early 2009 I was told that the show was coming to an end. Prithviraj Chauhan died at the raw age of 26years. But he had seen more than any youth at his age. The news was well taken but the process was excruciating. Every event in the story took something away from my life. As my friends died on the show one by one, I felt as if it was for real. It was almost surreal. People around me were lessening in real life too. Then came the final day of the shoot. There were sundry reactions. Some were excited to be finally being with their families, others were reflecting on the journey we covered together with the serial. Pictures were being taken and I was looking at the armour that I was living in for just 16 months but it seemed to have had spent an entire lifetime inside it. As I wore it for the last time I knew like I would shed this forever. It’s been some days we finished shooting. As I pen this on my laptop I also wait for a couple of my friends. We intend to catch a movie and then eat out. I know there will be a tomorrow for me and probably a new character to portray… but the memories of PRC lay heavy in my being. Mumbai seems quieter, quainter or I guess it’s the inside of me. A subtle satisfaction coats the actor inside me as PRC gave me more than the screen-space. There will be more but for sure this experience will always be special.