Amidst heightened anticipation for Aashram: Chapter 2 - The Dark Side, actor Aaditi Pohankar, who packed a punch with her role as a wrestler in Part 1 of the series, looks back at the time when she was first offered the role by filmmaker Prakash Jha.

While Aaditi, who had even auditioned for Dangal, was mighty excited about Aashram, there was one worry on her mind! Talking about it, she says, "When Aashram was offered to me, I still remember I had a meeting with Prakash sir, and he explained to me what the character is, her story and how impactful it can be. For one, he wanted a strong girl! And that time, I weighed 48 kgs."

As someone that lean, what was the first thing on her mind then? - "How am I going to put on this weight, and how long do I have, because I have a bit of an issue putting on weight," quips the young and raring to go actor, who was initially apprehensive about playing a wrestler in the show, but eventually realised that the trick lies in technique. In fact, one bout even went on to last 24 minutes!

Having well-known wrestler Sangram Singh to train her was at the insistence of the director for the series Prakash Jha. He agreed to choreograph the wrestling sequences and he was asked to trained the female wrestlers as well.

Speaking about her experience with Sangram, Aaditi said, `He's a beautiful soul. And he gave me that belief...You will manage it. Don't worry."

Sangram is also all praise for Aaditi's honesty towards her craft. He said, "She wanted to learn wrestling and perform well. She was charged up and had passion."

Bigger, bolder and stronger ...Aashram: Chapter 2 - The Dark Side will see Kashipur Waale Baba Nirala return as the uncrowned king of his own kingdom. Bending every rule to suit himself, this edition will see him as a man so dark and vile, preying on the innocent in the name of faith.

Produced and directed by Prakash Jha, this sensational series also stars Bobby Deol, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Darshan Kumaar, Anupriya Goenka, Adhyayan Suman, Tridha Choudhury, Vikram Kochhar, Tushar Pandey, Sachin Shroff, Anuritta K Jha, Rajeev Siddhartha, Parinitaa Seth, Tanmaay Ranjan, Preeti Sood, Jahangir Khan, Kanupriya Gupta and Navdeep Tomar in pivotal roles.

After the huge success of Part 1, this 9 episodic crime drama returns to wow audiences again as AASHRAM: Chapter 2- The Dark Side goes live on 11 November on MX Player.