The actor who plays Prahlad—the adorable ‘up pradhan’ (deputy) of the de-facto village headman (Raghuveer Yadav) in TVF’s path-breaking series, Panchayat—was born Mohammed Faisal Malik. He dropped his first name in school, on his own.

Because Faisal, as his first name instead, would bring ahead his roll number, therefore seating plan during exams, next to friends Gaurav, Karan, Khurram. They could cheat with ease. These juvenile delinquent BFFs from Allahabad used to do ‘group studies’ of answer sheets together.