Mohit Raina: My choice of work reflects my upbringing
Actor Mohit Raina has shown his skills in every character he played in the recent past, be it that of a lawyer, an army officer, a doctor or a cop. He says adding dignity to character comes naturally to him, courtesy his upbringing. Being a Kashmiri Pandit raised in Jammu, Mohit saw his father offere his service as a doctor to people all through his life.
Asked if such family background reflects in his life choices, Mohit, who became a household name for the TV series 'Devon Ke Dev - Mahadev', tells IANS: "I think everything that I do now somehow has a strong connection with my upbringing.
"You know, when I started as a model and eventually gained visibility as an actor for playing mythological characters, people would say my Hindi is so pure.
"I studied in a government school in Jammu where our third language was Sanskrit. As a child, I used to feel so stupid to study Sanskrit because it was not even a spoken language! But when I was playing Mahadev, I realised the advantage.
"It was same with '1 Sarfarosh - Saragarhi 1897' because being a Jammu boy, we speak in Dogri and also in Punjabi. That fluency of language was an advantage for me."
He goes on to add: "Wheather I play any character in uniform - a lawyer (in the web series 'Kaafir'), doctor, police or army officer, I have seen how each one of them wear the uniform with a certain sense of dignity."
"My father would always be up for some patient even late at night after a long day because he used to say that a doctor is never off duty. It is the same with a soldier or a policeman. Being a Kashmiri, we had to live in Jammu but Kashmir lives in my heart and that is why when the opportunity came to be part of a story like 'Uri - The Surgical Strike', I just jumped in.
"Approaching a character with a certain amount of dignity comes naturally to me. I remember after watching 'Mumbai Diaries: 26/11', where I used the medical terminology correctly, my family members were like 'areh! tujhe to sab sahi se bol na aa gaya, bilkul pakka doctor wala vibe'."
His latest show 'Bhaukaal 2' is streaming on MX Player.
