Challenge with 'Pushpavalli 2' was not to fall in writing pattern of season one: Naveen Richard

Actor-comic Naveen Richard is thrilled with reactions coming his way for "Pushpavalli" season two and he says the response feels sweeter as the team worked hard to not fall into the trap of repeating themselves in the new chapter.

Created by comic Sumukhi Suresh who also stars in the title role, the first season of the Amazon Prime Video's original series saw Pushpavalli move to Bengaluru from Bhopal to stalk Nikhil, a man she is obsessed with.

The new season chronicles the revenge Pushpavalli plans against Nikhil, who rejected her advances.

Naveen said the team wrote season two for close to eight months and he came on board towards the end.

"Between season one and writing two, I was also working on the 'Better Life Foundation' web series. By the time I got back to the show, I forgot the expectations, which helped. You want to do better for sure. But the thing which was challenging was to not fall in the same pattern in writing and character arcs.

"You'll be writing for days and would suddenly realise, 'Damn, we have done this before.' Even with Pankaj, we had to give him a lot of other things to do," Naveen told PTI in an interview.

The Bengaluru-based comedian, whose performance as the perennially angry librarian Pankaj has earned him praise from all quarters, asserted he is nothing like his on-screen character.

"I am glad the audience bought into the character and they were able to feel like he's real because he's so different from who I am. I'm glad people found it convincing and weren't put off by the yelling, which means his softness also felt real.

"It is hard to get people to like a character who keeps shouting. I guess we gave him a good arc," he said.

Naveen said the trick was to also show a different, softer side of Pankaj, who, as a lot of people texted him saying, "truly cares for Pushpavalli," who manages to manipulate probably the only true friend she has.

"Inherently I'm a more approachable guy. That's why in the scenes where he's interacting with Swati (Preetika Chawla) you see how much of a softy he really is. Once you show the audience that's who he is (they will relate)... On top of that, he always means well."