India, Dec. 27 -- Actor Priyanshu Painyuli, seen recently in Tere Ishq Mein, has now also embarked on his directorial journey. For his directorial debut Jaagar, he reveals that they performed the actual ritual to shoot the film scenes. For the 37-year-old actor, this film is a tribute to his hometown in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, where a ritual by the same name is practised. In the ancient ritual, the locals gather and perform ceremonies to call upon their deities. Priyanshu, reveals how supportive the crew and the villagers were that they performed the actual ritual. "In the film, none of the Jagar scenes was an act; we performed it every time; not once but thrice. We also performed it before beginning the shoot to take the blessings of local gods. So, I am very grateful to the people there and the government. I hope I am able to portray all of that, and Uttarakhand loves it," he tells us. The story of the film is centered around a girl, who tries make a documentary on the ritual of Jagar and in the process finds her own awakening amidst an internal turmoil. The actor Priyanshu who was a part of noted Bollywood films such as Pippa (2023), Rashmi Rocket (2021), and the Hollywood film Extraction (2020), speaks about balancing both his acting and directorial career, "I will not leave acting behind, but I also want to work with newer directors." He adds that he is not worried about being tagged as just a director in the times to come. "I have been acting for a while now, but suddenly I feel this spark within that I want to tell stories my way. Across the world, we know of actors who also direct. So that is the journey I want to take for now. There are lots of parallel tracks, but I am learning how to balance them," says Priyanshu....