Taking over a beloved character is a high-risk casting call, and Anant V Joshi walked straight into that pressure when he joined Gullak Season 5.
The actor replaced Vaibhav Raj Gupta as Annu Bhaiya, the elder Mishra son viewers had followed through the earlier seasons. In a new interview with NDTV, Anant admitted the first reaction was rough.
The trailer backlash landed first
Fans made their feelings clear as soon as the Season 5 trailer dropped. Anant said the response “really affected” him and made him “question my choice.”
He added that Vaibhav had set a high bar. “Vaibhav did it so well. The show is so loved,” he said, describing the nervousness that came with stepping into a show with a massive fan base.
Why the role feels personal
Gullak, created by Shreyansh Pandey and produced by The Viral Fever, is built on middle-class family life in the Mishra household. Santosh and Shanti Mishra, played by Jameel Khan and Geetanjali Kulkarni, anchor the world, with Harsh Mayar as younger son Aman.
Annu Bhaiya carries the weight of being the elder son. In slice-of-life storytelling like this, viewers experience the character less as a performance and more as someone they know. That is why a recast can feel personal.
The response flipped after release
Anant said the shift after Season 5 premiered on SonyLIV on June 5 was the “most rewarding feeling.” The same viewers who questioned the recast began to accept his version.
The moment shows something familiar in Indian streaming:
- Fans react to trailers as a promise, before the full performance is out.
- A new actor inherits both love and resistance when a character is already established.
- Acceptance often depends on making the role one’s own, not imitating the predecessor.
It mirrors the wider recasting conversation around Indian streaming. Mirzapur’s move to the big screen saw Jitendra Kumar step into a part originally played by Vikrant Massey, and the online debate followed a similar arc.
What changed for Anant
Rather than brushing off the criticism, Anant was honest about how much it stung. His takeaway was that love after low expectations lands harder: he was prepared for rejection, so the eventual embrace surprised him.
For fans, it is a quiet reminder that a teaser is only a few seconds of a full performance.
Source: Hindustan Times
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