To prep for his role as young police officer and IAS aspirant Imran Ansari in the recently dropped web series Pataal Lok, which is centred around the team at the fictional police station of Jamna Par in New Delhi, Ishwak Singh says he had to literally cross the Yamuna. "These areas are referred to as the outer districts… places like Mangolpuri, where the crime rate is very high. I hung out there, made friends with the cops and saw what their daily life was like. Most of them end up tackling 100 cases each. You begin to empathise with them, you know [what they do] is difficult. When they shared their stories, the details of their interrogations, that's where Ansari was born."

Singh, who is trained in theatre, says the method seems to have worked, with the entertainment circuit calling him the new "find". His phone has been ringing off the hook, with calls and messages from fans and seniors who matter. He thinks Ansari stands out because he represents the good in a story that's centred around greed, corruption and disillusionment, within the media, the police force and society in general.