Vikas Kumar is an actor, producer and dialogue coach. He is multi-talented. Kumar was seen in back-to-back-releases-'Aarya 3' and 'Kaala Paani'. He grabbed eyeballs with his stellar performances in both shows. In a recent interview with Outlook India, he expressed his happiness that these shows have been received well.
The talented actor has been a part of several films like ‘Parmanu: The Story Of Pokhran’, ‘Hamid’, ‘Ajji’, and also TV and digital shows. 'Aarya' made him a household name. Though Sushmita Sen played the titular character, Vikas' contribution to the show as ACP Younus Khan is also immense.
In the interview, he spoke at length about his character arc in 'Aarya Season 3', his equation with Sushmita, his working experience with Ram Madhvani and a lot more. Here are the excerpts from the interview.
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How has your character of ACP Khan evolved?
A lot has happened over the two seasons in ACP Khan's life and in Arya's life. Whatever happens in Aarya's life affects ACP Khan too. In Season 2, he was playing on the back foot, he was preoccupied more with his personal life. In Season 3, now that Aarya has become a full-pledged don, ACP Khan's only work is to chase her. So, he is playing on the front foot this time.
What do you love about Sushmita as an actor and character?
First, Sushmita, the person- her mind, soul, and her compassion. As an actor, I think she is fabulous. She didn't get her due in the earlier innings in mainstream cinema but look what she is doing now with Aarya; fabulous stuff. As a co-actor, she is very giving, cooperative and a delight to work with. There are a lot of beautiful exchanges that happened between ACP Khan and Aarya.
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As a character, ACP Khan feels for her. He protects her in his own way, wants to guide her and prevent her from doing the wrong stuff but if she decides to take the law into her own hands as she has done, then it is Khan's duty to nab her.
Apart from being an actor, you are also a dialogue coach. Did you improvise your dialogue on the show?
When I am acting, I try to remain an actor. Acting is a very tough job and it's all consuming. So, the dialogue coach part of mine stays behind. But as far as improvisation is concerned, yes, there are milestones in the script that we have to hit. Apart from that, we can do whatever we want to. How we arrive at those milestones is left to the actors. So, in arriving at the milestones if something happens in terms of improvising it's all welcomed. Usually, with his 360-degree style of shooting, he basically ensures that everyone is aware of what's happening around them. So, if an actor is aware he is in the scene, then improvisation leads to some magic happening. That kind of magic may stem from a mistake. That's welcomed on Ram Madhvani's set.
You have played both good and bad cop. Don't you feel bored or stereotyped?
I have mostly played a good cop. I played a bad cop in Ajji. But otherwise, I am an upright cop whatever I have played. You are right. One can get bored. Whatever I have chosen till now they had their own shades, they were different from each other and as an actor, I tried to keep them different from each other. If you notice now, the only cop role I am doing right now is in Aarya and he is very different from a typical cop. ACP Khan is a lot more human and there are lots of emotions involved in this character.
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People tend to simplify things when it comes to casting and a lot of calls that I get for acting assignments are cop roles. If they are very straight-jacket, investigative procedural cop roles then I don't take them up. But if there is more layering to it, if it has a journey and an arc, then I am willing to do it.
Tell us about your upcoming projects.
I have done a film called Uljhan. It's with Saloni Batra. We play the lead. She is a very fine actor. It is directed by Ashish Pant. It's a beautiful story about an upper middle class couple in Lucknow.
