Sai Ketan Rao's choice to play Gattu on Imlie (3rd generation)

Is this the first time Sai Ketan Rao has played a prude?

Gattu is really opinionated about how women should behave. He expects them to cover their heads with ghuṅghaṭa and their shoulders with pallū. At the same time, he says that he hates villages, and he has been living in London, where respectable women's shoulders may be bare, and hats may be worn only on formal occasions. I wonder if this idiosyncrasy was part of the character sketch presented to Sai Ketan Rao when he auditioned and accepted the part.

Sai Ketan Rao likes to challenge himself to play different characters. Raghav Rao on Mehandī Hai Racanevālī liked to scandalize women by talking about his "hanky panky" experience, whereas Raunaq Reddy on Cāśanī said that he only gave body heat to Chandani because he would rather die kuṃvāra. Although misogynistic male leads are common on Hindi TV, Gattu's prudish attitude is distinct, and Sai Ketan Rao is expressing it well.

I liked how Imlie^3 accused Gattu of being a pervert who comes to the bar to ogle revealingly-clothed women. Poor Gattu got back the same misunderstanding and prejudice that he hurled at her, calling her a fallen woman! Sai Ketan Rao's portrayal of Raghav's self-pity and feeling misunderstood was often heartbreaking, and I expect he'll do it for Gattu as well. In the September 12 episode's precap, it looked like Gattu wants his stepmother Alaka to like him, and their relationship will give his character more depth.

"Agastya ko hire kī nahīṃ, saccāī kī camaka acchī lagatī hai."

Imagine Sai Ketan Rao's thoughts when he read this line in his script for the September 29 episode!

Raghav Rao had utmost contempt for anyone who would think like this. Could there be a better line for the new character to oust the old character from the actor's psyche?

Gattu dismissively said bāye hātha kā khela even though he's left-handed like Sai Ketan Rao (e.g. signing the business transfer). And then Gattu played the piano with both hands, not attempting any of the musical pieces written for just the left hand.

When the dialogue pretends that a minority is invisible, an actor who belongs to that minority has an occasion to speak up. If Gattu had said out loud that he's left-handed, and he could coax his family to eat even with his right hand, the dialogue could have opened a few minds that still consider left-handedness a defect.

Sai Ketan Rao has been open about what he improvised in scenes before. This is one time I think he could have suggested a valuable improvisation, if the director was open to it.