‘Darlings’ Actor Vijay Varma: Success To Me Means Having An Audience To See Your Work

Vijay Varma has been part of the Hindi film industry for almost a decade now. To say the least, he’s always been a dependable actor with films like ‘Pink’, ‘Manto’, ‘Ghost Stories’, ‘Super 30’ and ‘Baaghi 3’ to his credit. He’s also starred in several web projects, including ‘A Suitable Boy’, ‘SHE’, ‘Mirzapur’ and ‘OK Computer’. Interestingly, he broke out of his shell with his role as Moeen in Zoya Akhtar's ‘Gully Boy’ (2019). 

However, ironically, the most love that Vijay Varma has received from the audience has been for his recent act as an abusive husband Hamza in Netflix film ‘Darlings’, directed by debutant Jasmeet K. Reen, co-starring Alia Bhatt and Shefali Shah. With the film, the 36-year old actor has certainly tasted success like never before. 

During a recent interaction with Outlook, Vijay says that success to him is a mix of a lot of things. “I keep thinking about what success is. But whatever little time I have spent in my Bollywood so far, I figured out that if you have an audience and get more as you move ahead, you are successful,” he tells us.

Ask him if success means being able to have the opportunity to choose roles, the actor says that when he started off, he took up the roles he was getting, even if they were small. However, despite having a steady career growth, he still likes to act how creators perceive him.

“I like to be in the process of creating things. Right now, I am still taking up roles as they come. I am not in a place yet where I can tell the story I like. I try to be what people perceive me and I am fascinated by what people can expect me to do. For instance, Hamza was a character that’s something very off-shoot for me. If I had to sit down and create this role, I would have not been able to do that. When I took up the role, I figured out that it would be difficult to perform such a character. But I like to be in that space more,” he says.

Does he get bothered by the social media hate he got for his role in ‘Darlings’, the actor quips, “When I played Hamza, I knew all along that the role would deserve hate. And if I didn’t get that hate, I would have thought there’s something wrong.”

Vijay recently walked the ramp for designer Rimzim Dadu in association with the Kiran Nadar Museum of Arts (KNMA) to present a special Art X Fashion showcase in New Delhi. When prodded about his unconventional choices, be it fashion or cinema, Vijay signs off by saying that he ‘aspires’ to do that, every single time. 

On the work front, he will next be seen in Sujoy Ghosh's ‘The Devotion Of Suspect X’ alongside Kareena Kapoor and Jaideep Ahlawat, apart from two web series, ‘Mirzapur 3’ and ‘Dahaad’.