In leading role again

MOVIES AND WEB SERIES ARE ONCE AGAIN BEING SET IN RUSTIC BACKGROUNDS, INDICATING A RECONNECT BETWEEN CINEMA AND THE COUNTRYSIDE

- ADITYA ZHAROTIA AND PREETHA BANERJEE

INDIAN AUDIENCES returned to the fictional village of Phulera this April, with the third season of Panchayat streaming on Amazon's Prime Video. Centred around the simple and sometimes mundane lives of village inhabitants seen through the eyes of Abhishek Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar), the reluctant sachivji (panchayat secretary) the series promised to be a lighthearted watch when it was first released in 2020. It was a hit among people stuck indoors due to the novel coronavirus pandemic lockdown, who took to social media to praise the actors, director and the production company The Viral Fever (TVF).

The latest season of Panchayat sustained this success, garnering as many as 28.3 million views in the first half of 2024, according to an assessment by media consulting firm Ormax Media. What may have kept the show popular even in the post-lockdown world may be its commitment to remain a rural story. Although its central character Tripathi is a city-bred youngster unwillingly thrust into a village, the show is not about his urban gaze into the rural settings. Rather, the focus stays on the people of Phulera, their everyday relationships, desires, problems and disappointments.

Even the sets are not exaggerated with "ruralness"-with a bare, ochre-coloured panchayat office, simple houses surrounded by fields and vast space between dwellings, Phulera looks like any Indian village one might pass during a road trip across the heartland.

"Almost all of TVF's writers are from tier-II or III cities. They want to tell the story of their surroundings and realities, not peddle to a fanciful urban dream," Vijay Koshy, TVF president, tells Down To Earth (DTE). "This has helped strengthen the regional voice," he adds.