Masaba Masaba fame Smaran Sahu: Response to 'Jogi' was overwhelming, it was surreal (Exclusive)

If people went gaga over Masaba Gupta in Masaba Masaba, Smaran Sahu's role as 'Jogi' has formed a separate fan following. The actor won hearts with his dapper, laid-back and coolest role ever. International Business Times India got in touch with the actor to talk about his upcoming shows, the Guptas, relationships and more.

Masaba Masaba made quite some noise. Now that the second season is coming up, were you expecting such great response from the first season?

Actually the response was quite unexpected. Though while we shot for the first season, I could tell there was something really special happening as the entire unit worked very cohesively and with boundless fun. But the eventual response for "Jogi", upon release was undeniably quite overwhelming. From the day one, I was flooded with messages from all over the world, appreciating my performance and to be honest it was really a surreal feeling. Congratulations to Ashwini, Sonam, Masaba and the entire team for their second outing!

How was it when working with Masaba Gupta and Neena Gupta? Tell us about the difference in their style of acting/working.

Though I didn't have any scenes with Neenaji, I still got the opportunity to see her perform live. She is just simply the visual representation of the word "effortless". The way she dives in and out of her character is truly inspiring and I learnt a lot by just watching her. Masaba has her own rhythm which really gave me a lot to play with and incorporate that freshness in our scenes. I thoroughly enjoyed working with her and can't wait to see what else she has up her sleeve!

You have gained even more fan following after the show. How much do you relate to such characters in real life? What's your take on modern day relationships.

I feel privileged to have the opportunity to showcase my craft and to have people love what I do. All I'd like is to be a working actor, with many more opportunities to collaborate with other creative minds and give form to my directors and producers vision. And in that journey have the love and support of my audience. I truly do not judge the characters offered to me and love going beyond my comfort zone and challenge myself as an actor.

Modern day relationships can be as fleeting or as grounded as chosen by the people involved. I feel as long as people have the clarity and comfort with what they want or what they'd like to build up to, and are vocal about it, every relationship can be as healthy as it can be.

Tell us more about your role in Bekaaboo.

In Bekaaboo, I play the character of Inspector Aakash, a brute, sarcastic, Mumbai top cop who is completely disengaged from the glossy world of other characters. I was very excited to play him as he's the complete opposite of "Jogi", and given the opportunity to show my range as an actor, I quickly grabbed it! Hope everyone has as much fun watching him, as I had playing him.