Vijay Varma is on a scorching streak. In solely a yr, the actor shone brilliant in Darlings (2022), Dahaad and now Lust Tales 2. “I really feel on prime of the world,” he smiles, once we sit down to speak with him. The actor made waves this summer season along with his intense depiction of a serial killer within the broadly acclaimed Dahaad, following it up with the Netflix anthology that dropped this weekend. Inform him he has come a great distance since his breakout flip in Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy (2019), and he displays, “There may be a lot content material popping out each week, throughout languages. When everybody stops to take a look at my present, it’s wonderful. I lastly really feel seen. It looks like I’m transferring in the correct route. Whereas these could look like harmful tales, I wish to proceed doing them.”
Whereas Lust Tales 2 opened to blended evaluations, Dahaad gained vast reward
Unheard tales excite him. Varma’s second criterion is administrators. He admits his good work is the results of discovering like-minded filmmakers. “I’d quite be a log of wooden in a superb director’s movie than be the lead in a film made by a filmmaker I don’t admire. I’m glad Sujoy Ghosh considered me for The Devotion of Suspect X and Lust Tales 2. He’s instructing me a lot, together with Bangla,” he laughs. Whereas their section in Lust Tales 2 obtained blended evaluations, the actor stands by the storytelling. “A brief movie is difficult as a result of a whole lot of it’s on paper, however there’s time constraint. It’s an actor’s job to internalise the character.”
Over the previous yr, there was intense scrutiny on OTT content material. As an actor who gravitates in direction of dangerous tales, does he discover himself curbing his decisions? “I’ve shot stuff that generally doesn’t make it to the edit as a result of the maker feels it doesn’t serve his story. Filmmakers know what can or can not get them in hassle. Actors give up to the script and the makers’ imaginative and prescient. Censorship is just not at all times from the skin; makers have their very own ethical compass. I’m working with a number of the most interesting administrators within the nation, and they’re way more clever in dealing with censorship than actors.”
We will’t finish the chat with out asking him for an replace on The Devotion of Suspect X, which sees him alongside Kareena Kapoor Khan and Jaideep Ahlawat. Varma teases us, saying, “Uska dhamaka jaldi aayega.”