He may be seen as a pilot on screen, but Vijay Varma had a tough time steering his career before he gained wider acclaim with Zoya Akhtar’s acclaimed drama Gully Boy. Life, before his breakthrough role as Moeen from the 2019 Ranveer Singh-Alia Bhatt starrer happened to him, was one without “no film offers” and a lot of hunger to make a mark, Vijay said.
Vijay Varma started his career with films like Monsoon Shootout, Chittagong and Pink. Though his performances were appreciated, Vijay didn’t become a recognisable name and face until Gully Boy, which was submitted as India’s entry to the Oscar.
“There were no offers until about post Gully Boy. Casting directors did believe in me, but I was not given a chance for a long, long time,” Vijay told Indianexpress.com when he sat down to talk about his latest work IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack.
Since there were no offers, Vijay recalled giving countless auditions in the hope of landing some part. That, however, was not easy as he was sometimes “locked” for projects and then promptly dropped as well, such as Anurag Kashyap’s Scared Games.
“In some auditions, I was in the wait list, in top five, top two and then I was locked and then I was dropped! I was locked in Sacred Games, I did my costume measurements and then I got dropped. Stuff like that has happened, but some part of me kept the faith and belief. Work started coming in after Gully Boy, but I think I was so starved for work, that I took a lot of it after the film.”
Vijay Varma starred in Gully Boy, which became his breakthrough film. (Photo: Vijay Varma/Instagram)
The actor said the hunger post Gully Boy made him want to make the most of the opportunities but what he didn’t realise was the industry was already starting to slot him for negative characters. Alia Bhatt starrer Darlings featured him as an abusive husband, while Sonakshi Sinha-led Dahaad saw him turn a ruthless serial killer.
“When Darlings happened, I couldn’t imagine myself in that role and then a series of roles happened where I was playing extremely devious, atrocious or devious men. A part of me wanted to break it but I couldn’t possibly do it myself. I found great support in filmmakers, who said they had seen me like that and wanted to offer me something new.
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“That’s how Sujoy Ghosh got me Jaane Jaan, where he decided to show me in a new light. Homi Adajania gave me Murder Mubarak, Anubhav Sinha sir got me IC 814. Someone who has just seen Darlings and Dahaad will not think this is the most noble character we have, and we want this guy to play him. The industry works in mysterious ways, when they see potential in you, they also want to give you the chance to tap on the other side of you. I didn’t break any stereotypes, because I didn’t make any stereotypes. They made it, they broke it,” he added.
IC 814 is based on the incident of December 24, 1999, when an Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 embarked on its journey from Kathmandu to New Delhi but was hijacked and was flown to several locations before landing in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Netflix series also stars Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Arvind Swamy and Dia Mirza among others.
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