Nikitin Dheer: Read a lot, watched many videos for 'Raktanchal' role

Mumbai: Actor Nikitin Dheer says he had to "learn and unlearn" a lot while working on his latest web series "Raktanchal".

Nikitin plays the menacing Waseem Khan in the show, which also stars Kranti Prakash Jha as Vijay Singh.

"I read up a lot about Purvanchal, which is where our show is based. I also watched as many videos I could find -- be it news clips, documentaries and other content based in similar region -- so that I could get a sense of the culture and the lingo they used," Nikitin said.

"We also conducted workshops, and the director, Ritam (Shrivastav), guided me through his vision of the character. It helped me build my character. It helped me learn and unlearn at the same time. A lot of what I did with my character was based on my imagination, too," he added.

In the show, the characters of Vijay Singh and Waseem Khan showcase the dark side of power, against the backdrop of the underbelly of society.

The crime drama is inspired by real events that happened in Purvanchal, Uttar Pradesh, in the eighties, around the time when state development work was distributed through tenders.

The series is directed by Ritam Shrivastav, and also features Vikram Kochhar, Pramod Pathak, Chitranjan Tripathi, Soundarya Sharma, Ronjini Chakraborty, Basu Soni and Krishna Bisht. It streams on MX Player.