After watching Vijay Varma’s performance in Anubhav Sinha’s IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, one wonders how such a malleable face is kept out of the limelight for almost a decade.
As a silent negotiator whose movement is restricted and who only has a windscreen to look at, the versatile actor ensures that the human drama plays out on his face. The role of the unsung hero has come after Vijay has earned the reputation of a dashing chameleon with Mirzapur, Dahaad, and Darlings.
Born in a business family in Hyderabad, Vijay was noticed in 2013 when Monsoon Shootout made headlines at Cannes. Critics felt that the industry has found its new Vijay but the actor remained stuck in the Bollywood pipeline before he sauntered into the mainstream with Gully Boy. The Zoya Akhtar film instilled in him the value of a powerful ensemble.
Vijay Varma as Captain Sharan Dev in ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’ | Photo Credit: Netflix
“I am not crazy about screen time. Anubhav (Sinha) sir checked my temperament to do an ensemble but I was game. Getting to play a fairly simple, noble, and heroic character was a welcome change for me after playing some extremely twisted men,” chuckles Vijay.
Not keen on getting his talent bracketed, Vijay says, “Commercial or not commercial, what I am doing now is the new Bollywood. You can call it Bollygood.”
Excerpts from an interview...
Despite the critical acclaim for ‘Monsoon Shootout’, why did it take so long for the industry to unearth your talent?
One can’t be unearthed unless the camera is put on you. In many ways, we are still in a rat race. I can explain it allegorically. If there is a four-way track to travel from one point to another in the film industry, three tracks are clogged with trains that should not have been there on the tracks. But an outsider like me is not allowed to use those tracks. The argument often given by a section is that the public decides but when you keep the track occupied for five-seven years, the public has little to choose from and those waiting, keep struggling on the one track they are left with. But once you get success you can flip between any of the tracks.
Instead of opting for second leads, you preferred to play negative shades...
The dark roles were not planned. I am a greedy actor when it comes to picking roles. I took that dive because my heroes took that route. I grew up watching Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. They never played it straight. I also find being straight-jacketed boring. Even Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan also started with some incredibly difficult-to-understand men. Interestingly, after seeing me play negative parts, filmmakers like Homi Adajania and Sujoy Ghosh approached me because they wanted to see me in a positive light.
How do you approach the devious characters?
An actor’s job is to put a torch on the darkest flaws of human beings so that the audience can identify that such people are roaming in our society. They don’t have an extra eye or a horn. If you don’t talk about them, they will never come to the forefront of social conversations. For instance, the discourse around domestic violence is important that’s why Darlings happened.
What is your process? How did the FTII training help?
At acting schools and workshops, you don’t find anything new apart from the fact that these spaces allow you to reflect on your life. Like a sponge, you become extremely responsive and receptive to what is happening around you. When I started training, I realised the yawn I take when I wake up in the morning was different from my yawn before the camera. In real life, it gives a different feel. Gradually, investigations and experiments started to happen. I have taken selfies of myself breaking down to see how my face turns and how my skin colour changes when I cry. I keep them with me to give the make-up person the right brief. I constantly keep deriving from life. A friend who is a habitual liar but loves to repeat the falsehoods to himself as if convincing him, a relative who is disrespectful to women and newspaper stories become my raw material. I am fascinated by the lengths people go to hide their crimes.
It seems the shift towards positive roles started with the complex ‘Kaalkoot’ which felt diametrically opposite to the vile part in ‘She’...
Yes, Kaalkoot was with a friend and first-time director Sumit Saxena, a brilliant writer. It was more of a character study than a thriller. A youngster who joins the police force but is not an alpha, someone who is not a player. It asks deeper questions such as when violence is the only rule, how do you practice peace? Does idealism serve you? The idea of a missing father. It was more difficult than playing an evil character because the flaws were so fine and textured. Wanting to be a good person can also be difficult.
The character in She was blatantly offensive and unfiltered. I had to let go of my inhibitions, otherwise it would have looked fake. As those were early days and I was shy and reserved, Imtiaz Ali’s presence helped in shaping Sisya. We can say Kaalkoot was more of a self-reflection for me while in She, I was trying to take myself as outside of me as possible. It is a deeply internal process and the challenge always is that the camera doesn’t catch it.
How do you negotiate the image trap and the fear of running out of tricks?
I don’t think I have an image, for I know an image trap is a very sticky bomb. If it sticks, it deteriorates your craft, turning you into its slave. Javed Akhtar once told me that if you have to choose between passion and experience always pick passion. The vehicle that is driven by passion lasts the distance.
Having said that, a part of me gets worried that I have only as many tricks and will run out of them but over the years I have often found that the thought is self-limiting. There was a time when I felt that Monsoon Shootout was a fluke but eventually, I was noticed. One should keep taking challenges for new tricks to develop. Otherwise, I can very well go back to theatre and writing.
What are the new challenges for actors like you in the industry?
There are more work opportunities but it is even tougher now because apart from talent, people use social media clout to pitch for roles. It has become the criteria for picking an actor for a film. It is still early days but if it continues like this it will start to adversely affect the quality.
What’s next?
A big Tamil film I was supposed to be part of, hasn’t taken off. I am doing a series called Matka King with Nagraj Manjule. Based on the life of Ratan Khatri, it is about the gambling business in Bombay that flourished during the 1960s and 1970s.
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