Actor Vijay Varma on working with the filmmaker on her next that features Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt as leads
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 23, 2018)

After featuring in Shoojit Sircar’s National Award-winning Pink alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu, and Monsoon Shootout with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vijay Varma will be seen in Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy with Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt. “The film is about finding your voice against all odds. I play one of the boys from the gully and share a love-hate relationship with Ranveer’s character though my part isn’t related to music at all. I will be shooting on and off till April,” says Varma, who kicked off work with a lighthearted sequence last week in Mumbai. “The film’s team knows how to spoil their actors. There was a goodie bag waiting for me in my van on the first day. It was really smooth with everything planned well in advance. We had enough time for rehearsals and go through the scenes meticulously.”

Varma, who is working on his prep, says, “Zoya has been really effective as a director, she built a strong foundation before we went on the sets. A lot of work is going into getting the Bambaiya lingo right and I’ve been spending time with people from Dharavi who can help me perfect it. I have also been told to grow my hair and nails out to look the part. Atul Mongia had been roped in to conduct workshops with us and we discussed the character and the film.”

On how he was brought on-board, he informs that Zoya saw him in the Monsoon Shootout trailer when he met her during the casting process and was impressed. “It is funny how after Pink I was only getting chauvinistic roles. After Monsoon Shootout, everyone wanted to give me a gun and a uniform. Thankfully, now I am getting roles that are unlike the ones I have already played and I am enjoying it,” the actor signs off.