Kota Factory star Mayur More on Black, White & Gray: ‘I didn’t read the script before shooting’

Mayur More

Would you believe it if we told you that Mayur More, who played the meek and clumsy IIT aspirant Vaibhav Pandey in Kota Factory, has never watched his own show? The actor confesses that apart from the first season, he has never dared to watch any of his work. "I get too critical about my work, wondering what I could have done better. It's an unwanted pressure," shares More, who is seen in Pushkar Mahabal's directorial series Black, White & Gray - Love Kills. The series follows journalist Daniel Gary, who sets out to uncover four murders linked to an elusive young man - played by More - from an economically disadvantaged background. As Daniel investigates, he exposes a web of corruption, patriarchy, and societal divides, blurring the lines between guilt and innocence. In conversation with mid-day, the actor talks about what drew him to the show and his lack of prep before the shoot.

Edited excerpts from the interview.

How did you bag the role in Black, White & Gray - Love Kills?
Like any other normal process, I went for the audition. They gave me the script in English, and I had to translate it into Hindi before the audition, which annoyed me a little at first. Even during the audition, I didn't understand the briefing because they gave me no details. In the second round of auditions, Pushkar [Mahabal, director-writer] was present, and I expressed how clueless I was in my first audition. That's when he told me a bit more about the story. Pushkar and our writer Ankita's [Narang] energy was so infectious that I got drawn in even more. After four rounds, I was bored and very close to quitting. The show was initially planned to shoot in March-April [2024], but I was already working on another project at the time. So I declined the show. However, things got delayed on their end, and our schedules eventually aligned.

What was your prep like?
Actually, I didn't even get the time to read the script. When Pushkar asked if I had read it, I said I hadn't and felt guilty. We had to start shooting within a month, so it was quite shameful to admit that I hadn't read it. I thought he'd be angry, but instead, he gave me a strange reaction. He asked me to come on set without reading the script. I thought he was being sarcastic, but he wasn't. On set, he gave me the narration, and I couldn't stop myself from jumping up and down - the script was confusing, but the twists surprised me. My loud reaction surprised me, while Pushkar was thrilled.

How was it shooting the complicated scenes with the cast and crew?
I had a lot of fun shooting the series. It was hectic, unlike your regular shoots. My DoP, Saee [Bhope], didn't use any lights in the scenes - the ones we did use can't really be considered proper shooting lights. Usually, between shots, you get about half an hour to adjust the lighting, but here we had none of that. We were shooting back-to-back. We were initially told we would shoot in a linear fashion, which made me feel relaxed because the script is quite complex. However, our location was so remote - somewhere in Nagpur - that we couldn't do it that way. Typically, a crew consists of 100 to 150 people, but Pushkar prefers working with a smaller team. We had only 30 to 40 people on set. The action and running scenes were tough but a lot of fun.

Palak Jaiswal and Mayur More in Black, White & Gray - Love Kills

The music on the show has a 1980s vibe. Did you explore it personally on set?
I was very excited about the music in the show. Pushkar feels he isn't a good enough music director, so he moved to directing. Interestingly, we share a similar taste in music. I was listening to a track by Charanjit Singh, who was the sound engineer with RD Burman. In 1982, he made an album called 10 Ragas to Disco, which has now become a cult. When he explored this sound, even he didn't realise he was creating something for future [generations]. He was missing the tabla, so he used a synthesiser instead. I made Pushkar listen to it, and he told me that the show's music would be similar. I was thrilled.

How will this show help your career trajectory?
Actually, the story drives me. I never think about how a show will help boost my career. After Kota Factory, where I played such an interesting character, people keep casting me as a student. I'm a bit bored of that now. Even when I try to play it differently, they ask me to recreate the same look from Kota Factory. Sometimes, you
have to do it for the money. I repeated myself once when the director insisted on that look.

Mera mann khatta ho gaya tha because I didn't get to explore anything new. I've tried to keep all my choices distinct from each other. The idea is to live many lives in this one life.

Mayur's past works

. Tikli and Laxmi Bomb (2017)
. Gachchi (2017)
. Chidi Balla (2019)
. Girlfriend Chor (2020)
. Kota Factory (2019-24)
. Slum Golf (2023)