Known for his quirky humour and anchoring skills, Maniesh Paul — who has done acting jobs in the past, including last year's multistarrer hit Jugjugg Jeeyo — is garnering praise for his serious turn in Rafuchakkar. The nine-episode web series, streaming free on JioCinema, has Maniesh playing a conman for which he has to step into as many as five roles. A The Telegraph chat with Maniesh.

Are viewers surprised to see you in a new avatar in Rafuchakkar?

Everyone has been so used to seeing me do comedy that they really like this serious avatar of mine. That is great encouragement for me as an artiste. Before it released, I was pretty scared about the reactions but my performance has been well appreciated.

You have really taken on a lot here, from enacting five characters to slapping on prosthetics to changing body and body language...

The challenge lay in unlearning what I had learnt till now. I do a lot of comedy, I host a lot of shows and what I have done in Rafuchakkar is completely different. In this, it wasn't as simple as reading a script and learning the dialogues. I had a lot of meetings with the director (Ritam Srivastava) and discussed how I would play all the characters, not only in terms of saying the dialogues but also his looks, mannerisms, and how he will look... the process was so amazing that I just fell in love with it.

Is this a turn towards picking up largely serious roles now?

I have been breaking the mould, I have been meeting people for that constantly. I am a very hungry artiste... I don't get comfortable. The moment I feel I am in my comfort zone, I want to break the shackles and move on. When Ritam called me for this series, he said he had done so after watching me in Jugjugg Jeeyo, which was a surprise for me because I had played a comic guy there, a light-hearted man. But Rafuchakkar was nothing like that. But he told me that he liked how I did comedy in Jugjugg Jeeyo one second and would shift to an emotional zone and then shift to comedy again. I was impressed by his observation skills and was sold on the fact that Rafuchakkar needed me to play five characters, all of who were very different.

Was any one character a little bit more difficult to pull off than the rest?

The base character, Prem, was the most difficult to do. He is really quiet and doesn't speak much and that is difficult to play for someone like me. If people could buy into me as Prem, then the rest would be relatively easier to pull off.

I had to make sure that I didn't look like Maniesh Paul at all! Prem doesn't have a good build and so I had to put on weight. Unlike me, this guy is not into fitness. I am glad people are noting the change in gait and I am very happy with the response.

Maniesh as one of his five characters in Rafuchakkar, now streaming on JioCinema

You gained 20kg for the role and subsequently lost it. What was that process like and what did it take out of you?

The process began the day I met Ritam... the moment we locked the series, I started thinking like the characters, I was trying to be like them. For a person like me, it doesn't come that easy... I just can't go on set and become a character. I like to prepare.

Plus, I was doing a lot of hosting at that time and I had to break away from that also. Rafuchakkar wasn't the regular kind of work that I get and hence I wanted to dedicate myself to it. From that time, I started gaining weight. I left training which is very difficult for me because I love working out every day. I started hogging a lot. Honestly, I was a little scared also because I tend to gain weight easily. But I was grateful to have my trainer around who helped me gain weight and also lose it.

How has doing this project tangibly contributed to you as an actor?

I feel I have met this new actor in me which I did not know existed. Till this series, no one was able to tap into this side of my personality. I was able to discover this facet in me. Everyone is always only happy to offer me comic roles. After doing Rafuchakkar, people have seen that I can pull off much more. As actors, we all are scared that the persona that has been created for many years would weigh heavy. Thankfully, in my case, it hasn't.