Shaheer Sheikh's first thought on playing Sushant Singh Rajput's character in Pavitra Rishta 2: 'People won't accept me'

Television actor Shaheer Sheikh has said that his first thought on stepping into the shoes of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, to essay the role of Manav in Pavitra Rishta 2, was that people will 'not accept' him. He said he wasn't very sure if he should be a part of the show and was nervous.

Pavitra Rishta was a popular TV show that launched on Zee TV in 2009. The serial made Ankita Lokhande, who played Archana, and late actor Sushant Singh Rajput household names. It ran for five years and clocked 1424 episodes. Sushant left eventually left the show to focus on his film career.

In an interview with SpotboyE, Shaheer Sheikh said, "A lot of people told me that are you sure you want to do this character? Because it was a legendary character of such a hit show played by Sushant Singh Rajput. People will have very high expectations from you. I was anyway not very sure if I should take up the show and after hearing all such things, I started feeling even more nervous. In fact, the first thought I had was, 'Mujhe accept hi nahi karenge log (People will not accept me)'.

Speaking about Sushant Singh Rajput, Shaheer Sheikh said, "I have met him (Sushant Singh Rajput) twice but we didn't know each other personally. What I know about him is that he was the guy who took the risk of quitting his hit television show for Bollywood... For television actors like us, he opened a way there... I remember during the release of Kai Po Che, a media person had asked me what do you think about it and I had told that he has opened the door for us. A long time back it was Shah Rukh Khan sir who did Circus on TV and ended up becoming a Bollywood star and now it is Sushant Singh Rajput."

Pavitra Rishta 2 began filming recently. Last week, the team of ALTBalaji took to the production banner's Instagram account and shared several pictures. The caption read, "Sometimes in most ordinary lives, we find the most extraordinary love stories! Witness the extraordinary love story of Manav and Archana. #PavitraRishta Filming begins; streaming soon on #ALTBalaji #ItsNeverTooLate."

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The digital series will be exclusively available on ZEE5 for 55 days following whichit will also be available on ALTBalaji. The series will be directed by Nandita Mehra and written by Nikita Dhond, Gautam Hegde and Ritu Bhatia.