Interview with Vijay Varma: On ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’, an outsider and being at the helm
Vijay Verma on the sets of ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’
After watching Vijay Varma’s performance in Anubhav Sinha’s film IC 814: Kandahar Hijack, One wonders how such a flexible face has been kept out of the limelight for nearly a decade.
As a silent negotiator whose movements are limited and who only has a windscreen to look at, the versatile actor ensures that the human drama unfolds on his face. The unsung hero role came after Vijay earned the reputation of a dashing chameleon Mirzapur, Dahad, And darling.
Born in a business family in Hyderabad, Vijay came to the limelight in 2013 when Monsoon Shootout Ears are headlined. Critics felt that the industry had found its new conquest but the actor remained stuck in the Bollywood pipeline before making it to the mainstream. abuse boy. Zoya Akhtar’s films have instilled in him a strong sense of communal values.
Vijay Verma as Captain Sharan Dev in ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’ Photo credit: Netflix
“I’m not crazy about screen time. Anubhav (Sinha) sir checked my mood to do an ensemble but I was playing. Playing fairly normal, noble and heroic characters was a welcome change for me after playing some extremely twisted men,” smiles Vijay.
Not interested in getting his talent bracketed, Vijay says, “Neither commercial nor commercial, what I am doing now is the new Bollywood. You can call it Bollygood.”
Excerpts from the interview…
Despite the critical acclaim of ‘Monsoon Shootout’, why did it take so long for the industry to recognize your talent?
No one can find you unless the camera is on you. In many ways, we are still in the rat race. I can explain it metaphorically. If the film industry has a four-way track to get from one point to another, three tracks are stuck on trains that shouldn’t have been on the track. But an outsider like me is not allowed to use those tracks. It is often argued by a section that the public decides but when you occupy the track for five-seven years, the public has nothing to choose from and those who wait, continue to struggle for the track they leave behind. But once you succeed you can flip between any track.
Instead of choosing secondary leads, you chose to play negative shades…
The dark role was not planned. I am a greedy actor when it comes to choosing roles. I took that plunge because my heroes took that path. I grew up watching Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. They never played live. I also find straight jackets boring. Even Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan started out with some incredibly difficult men to understand. Interestingly, after seeing me play negative roles, filmmakers like Homi Adajania and Sujoy Ghosh approached me as they wanted to see me in a positive light.
How do you contact stray characters?
An actor’s job is to shine a torch on people’s dark flaws so that the audience recognizes that such people roam our society. They do not have extra eyes or horns. If you don’t talk about them, they will never come up in social conversation. For example, why is discourse around domestic violence important? darling happened
What is your process? How did FTII training help?
In acting schools and workshops, you find nothing new except that these spaces allow you to reflect on your life. Like a sponge, you become highly responsive and receptive to what is happening around you. When I started training, I realized that the yawn I wake up in the morning is different than the yawn I yawn in front of the camera. In real life, it gives a different feeling. Gradually investigations and experiments started. I broke down and took selfies to show how my face looks and how my skin color changes when I cry. I keep them with the make-up person to give them the right brief. I am constantly drawing from life. A friend who is a habitual liar but likes to repeat lies to himself as if to convince him, a relative who disrespects women and newspaper stories become my raw material. I am fascinated by the lengths people go to to hide their crimes.
Seems to have started a shift towards positive roles with the complex ‘Calcutt’ which felt like a contrast to the bad part in ‘She’…
yes, Calcutta Along with a friend and first-time director Sumit Saxena, a brilliant writer. It was more of a character study than a thriller. A young man who joins the police force but is not an alpha, someone who is not a player. It asks deeper questions like how do you practice peace when violence is the only rule? Does idealism serve you? The idea of a missing father. It was more difficult than playing an evil character because the flaws were so subtle and textured. Wanting to be a good person can also be difficult.
character in he Was clearly aggressive and passive. 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 shape CC. we can say Calcutta There was a self-reflection for me while there he, I was trying to get as much out of myself as possible. It’s a deep internal process and the challenge is always that the camera doesn’t capture it.
How do you negotiate the image trap and the fear of running out of tricks?
I don’t think I have an image, because I know an image trap is a very sticky bomb. If it gets stuck, it corrupts your craft, making you its slave. Javed Akhtar once told me that if you have to choose between passion and experience, always choose passion. Vehicles driven by impulses last the distance.
Having said that, part of me worries that I have too many tricks and will run out of them but over the years I’ve often found that thinking is self-limiting. There was a time when I felt it Monsoon Shootout Was a fluke but eventually, I was noticed. Challenges should be accepted to develop new strategies. Otherwise, I may very well go back to drama and writing.
What are the new challenges for actors like you in the industry?
There are more job opportunities but it is more difficult now because apart from talent, people use social media to pitch for roles. It has become the criterion for selecting an actor for a film. It is still early days but if it continues like this it will start to adversely affect quality.
What next?
A big Tamil film that I was supposed to be a part of didn’t close. I am doing a series called Matka is the king With Nagaraj Manjule. Based on the life of Ratan Khatri, it is about the gambling business in Bombay that flourished in the 1960s and 1970s.
