Vijay Varma

“I think the pandemic took care of the insideroutsider debate for me… Right now, the audiences are the ones deciding who they like and who they don’t!”

Vijay Varma

The multi-talented Vijay Varma gives Sumita Chakraborty his take on nepotism, insiders versus outsiders’ debate, working with Mira Nair and A Suitable Boy.

Vijay, you’re one of the finest actors in the industry but I think you’ve been “discovered” only after the web series era, were there many challenges you faced? How has the journey been?

Thank you for the compliment. The process of discovery started with Pink and Gully Boy. During the lockdown, a lot of work came about and people were consuming a lot of content and most of my work that was pending came out during this time, and the work reached several people. So in a way, the discovery kind-of became big in the last few months. Having said that, it has been a long journey and it’s been a slow, steady and a very beautiful journey with ups and down – from being on the periphery to coming in the forefront. It was full of challenges but somewhere when you’ve trained yourself to be an actor, the passion that you have to do what you want to do drives you and you overcome all these obstacles and challenges and make your existence meaningful. It is also a process of self-discovery, it’s been a very enriching experience.

Tell us about A Suitable Boy? How did you get it?

So A Suitable Boy happened through lots of reading for various parts. I actually read for three different parts and eventually got Rashid. Mira, when she met me, was very happy with what I did in Gully Boy and told me that I want you to be a part of A Suitable Boy but I cannot tell you for which role right now. So, she tried me for various parts and settled down on Rashid. So that is how I got the role. It was a very interesting experience for me because I am a big admirer of her work and to be one of the actors she wanted to work with was a big pat on my back in a way and trying various parts was also an interesting experience.

Tell us about your character?

The character of Rashid is very full of complexities and at the same time, he is a very simple guy who actually wants to lead a life of freedom and also be a voice for change, for good. But it’s just that the times he was in and the circumstances he was facing were very complex in nature and he wasn’t able to process it, so his mind went into a frenzy and from what I understood from my conversation with Vikram Seth, the author and Mira Nair was that he (we didn’t have the diagnosis back in the day) had schizophrenia. From what we understood that he started to hallucinate and imagine forces which weren’t there so he is basically a troubled man who wants to make a change but feels very incapable of doing any- thing. A romantic at heart and at the same time, a very strong revolutionary, he has a certain kind of activism in him to change so it had enough for me to play with and it also gave me an experience that I don’t think I had with any other character. It’s very poetic, very romantic and at the same time, a deeply traumatic and tragic part.

There is this constant debate of insiders and outsiders, what do you think of this?

I think the pandemic took care of the insider-outsider debate for me, to be very honest. Right now, the audiences are the ones deciding who they like and who they don’t like so the forces aren’t really coming into the play of deciding who is an insider or an outsider. It is just upto the janta to appreciate somebody or not like somebody.

Does nepotism make a difference?

I haven’t been on the other side, I’ve never had a filmy family so I wouldn’t know if it would make any difference personally. If I speak about this, it would be a hypothetical analysis of what it could be and I don’t want to go down there. But, I am absolutely thrilled with the kind of experiences I have brought and the hardships that I’ve gone through which helped me in the process of self-discovery, which is actually the actor’s job because it helps when you embody several shapes and characters and moods as an actor. And it is always a bonus to have earned everything on your own.

Lastly, when you look back at your journey, is there anything you want to change?

Oh ya! When I look back at my journey – I think I was very naïve when I came from the film institute, very wide-eyed and innocent and full of ideas and an idea of an idealistic world. I had to take a bit of a hitting for being that naïve but I don’t know if I want to change it though. At film school, they should also teach you how to understand not just your journey as an actor but also crafting your career or being a businessman, with your work.