'P.O.W.' left me emotionally drained: Purab Kohli

To play an Army man returning to his country after spending 17 years in captivity, in upcoming TV show "P.O.W.-Bandi Yuddh Ke", actor Purab Kohli had to tap his inner most self, which made him feel emotionally drained.
Directed by filmmaker Nikhil Advani, the political thriller, which will be a finite series, is based on Israeli drama "Hatufim".
Purab plays one of the two soldiers, who returns to India 17 years after being kept as a prisoner of war.
The actor says he put in a lot of effort from his side to get the finer nuances of his character right, which included meeting the army personnel.

"I have given it all that I had, 'P.O.W.' has really juiced me. It is a very hard character to play and on top of that working in TV is hard too," he said.
"To get into the skin of the character, I spoke to psychologists, went to the Sikh regiment, met the Army. There was the basic research that I had to do as an actor," Purab told PTI.

The show features actor Satyadeep Misra, playing the other Indian soldier, who returns to his family after a series of torture and relentless abuse.
The 37-year-old "Rock On" star credits Advani for making both the actors dive straight into shooting the torture sequences first, so that they become aware of what exactly is required of the duo throughout the series.

"What worked for me and Satyadeep was that Nikhil shot the torture sequences with us first, before he shot anything else. He did that so we could understand as actors what he is going to show in the show, what our characters on the show are going to go through," Purab said.
The process helped the actor, who could imagine the torture that the personnel, enacted by him, had to go through.
TV is not a new medium for the actor, who made his debut
in the cult late 90s series "Hip Hip Hurray", before establishing his name as a video jockey.

Purab, however, hopes that his show will help bring back quality content on TV, which is off-late making shows solely for ratings.
"I know a lot of people from the TV industry, actors, producers directors, writers, are really banking on 'P.O.W.' and hoping it does well. Because if it does, it will open up content. More promising content will get approved, right now everyone is making things for TRPs and sponsorship," he said.
"Finally channels will say 'Oh since it has worked, let's do it.' There are some fine actors, producers and directors in the television industry but they don't get an opportunity which Nikhil Advani has, primarily because he is a filmmaker and a big name," he said.

Purab, meanwhile, will be next seen in "Rock On 2", scheduled to release on November 11, just four days after the priemere of his show.
"The biggest week of my life is just around the corner," the actor added.