Actor Gagan Dev Riar, who gained fame in the web series ‘Scam 2003 – The Telgi Story,’ has revealed that he struggled during his college days and worked as a peon to support his education. In an interview with Hindustan Times, he said, “I was 18-19 when I had just completed my first year pursuing BCom. There was a financial crisis in the family, and I needed to take care of my education. I also worked in an ad company as a peon, performing tasks like moving files, getting camera reels printed, and other such duties.”
He further revealed that he wrote songs for ten or eleven TV shows. “I first wrote for ‘Kaisa Yeh Pyar Hai.’ It continued for five to six years, and I wrote songs for around 10-11 shows. My breakthrough project was when I wrote for ‘Choti Bahu,’ and then ‘Maryada’ happened, followed by ‘Bani Ishq Da Kalma,’ among many others,” he added.
Regarding his preparation for the role of Telgi, he mentioned that he had to gain weight. “The main challenge was to gain weight; I had six to seven months to do so without compromising my health. It was essential to ensure that I didn’t develop any health issues during the process,” he said. He also mentioned that a lot of effort went into perfecting his accent, capturing the “Bambaiya lingo of a person who came from Karnataka.”
Gagan made his big screen debut alongside Sushant Singh Rajput and Manoj Bajpayee in Abhishek Chaubey’s ‘Sonchiriya.’ Following the success of ‘Scam 2003 – The Telgi Story,’ he is now receiving offers for mainstream projects.