Mohit Raina

If there is a good story, I will take it up.

I am a complete foodie.

Lucknow University looks amazing all lit up during night time.

Yes, my mom has studied at Lucknow University. She used to tell me various things about this place. She used to live in Indira Nagar and her extended family still lives here.

I have a very strange connect with Lucknow. Though I have never got an opportunity to come to Lucknow, I have been hearing about the city from my mom for the past 30 years!

I have always maintained that my personal and professional life is completely apart.

Any character that has a reference or baggage or emotional trauma, I personally feel, leaves an impact.

I'm not holding on to Mahadev. The audience is.

I have made peace with the fact that Mahadev is going to be with me forever. The character had a universal appeal.

I'm fortunate to be loved by all age groups.

I have not spoken about my personal life earlier and I choose to maintain that.

I work for creative satisfaction. It's my hunger for good work that motivates me to explore.

Initially when I was working on TV, people would ask why I'm not trying for films. My reply was that I was enjoying TV and had no reason to shift.

I have always been fascinated by the uniform and the army.

I used to plan a lot. I have stopped planning after 'Mahadev.'

I am happy in my own space.

I don't feel an image can really bind an actor.

I believe doing projects that offer content-backed performances.

I never entered the industry with hopes of making it big instantly.

Had it not been for the emergence of OTT platforms, Kaafir' would still be a story on papers.

The writer of Kaafir,' Bhavani Iyer had to keep the story with her for 13 years, the producer, Siddharth Malhotra, could only provide justice to the story after struggling for eight years.

In Uri,' I got discipline; in Battle of Saragarhi,' I understood what leadership is.

Every character gives you something or the other, and you can't calculate it unless you are living the character. You learn something about the character that stays with you.

I have done scenes where I've had to hold the hand of a girl and tell her that I love her. And frankly I did not enjoy that much.

I search for thrill in my characters because I am a boring person.'

I need to show my toned muscles because I will be always in Lord Shiva's look and people will get to see my bare body.

For 'Shiddat,' I knew I had to look, feel and sound like a seasoned resident of Paris.

I am sure the audience that looks on me as a Mahadev knows that at the end of the day, I am an actor playing a God. But that doesn't exonerate me from a social responsibility.

The problem is, Mahadev is the Supreme Being, the Ultimate God. I've already played the Supreme Power. After one climbs the Himalayan peak, one can only go down from there. Any thing I do, any God I play would be a climb-down.

At a time when mythologicals were considered obsolete, Devon Ke Dev Mahadev' revived the genre.

For me, playing Mahadev has been the biggest challenge, honor and satisfaction.

I am happy to see that it is not just me, but even my friends and family now believe in green Diwali and we celebrate together eating lots of good food and sweets.

I used to go with my father to buy phooljharis and chakris and there used to be Sabu' crackers in the market back then. Since Sabu was my favorite superhero, I would buy Sabu crackers just to collect the wrappers.

I think we should all try and do our bit to celebrate an eco-friendly Diwali to bring about an environmental change.

After Jama Masjid, I always stop at India Gate as exploring Delhi is never complete without visiting that place where I spent so many evenings as a child.

I remember when we used to come to Delhi, my cousins and I would binge on possibly everything that we craved for back home.

As an adult, I have got few chances to visit Delhi's places such as Chandni Chowk or Janakpuri, but my connection to these places is still strong, as I would go there as a child.

Wherever I go people start calling me lord Shiva. It feels awesome.

I expect filmmakers to look at talent and realize that the medium should open up more for TV actors too.

Both mythology and history interest me.

Once I was in Varanasi, a man in his mid 40s came to meet me from Jalandhar. He touched my feet and asked for blessings. I was stunned. I picked him and hugged him. He said he is blessed now. I think that was the most memorable moment in my life.

I want to constantly do better and better as an actor in Mahadev' and hope audiences will go on showering their love on the show.

Nobody wants to marry a God. Once I become a human being, there will definitely be marriage proposals.

He is Lord Shiva and Lord Shiva is a sexy god. The plan was to show him as being sexy. And that worked for us. I don't take the credit for the character at all.

As a kid, since I was born in Kashmir, I have been to the Amarnath caves.

Since I grew up in Jammu, all my school and college friends are from there and the area's language, Dogri, is slightly similar to Punjabi, so I understand a bit of Punjabi.

Being someone who has always been fascinated by the forces, it is a great honor to play Havildar Ishar Singh, who sacrificed everything for his country. To live his life for seven months while shooting will always be a special experience for me.

When I was in college, the Kargil War had just happened, and I remember going with my friends on a bike to collect empty shells.

Dharma Productions' films are mounted on a grand scale; a TV show cannot match it.

I was in the NDA (National Defence Academy) when the Kargil war happened, and I was all set to join the Indian Army. But my family was not keen. In addition to that, I got rejected because of my poor eyesight.