Vikrant Massey on slipping into the role of an astronaut for the first time in Cargo
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; October 19, 2019)

Set to play an astronaut for the first time on screen in Cargo, Vikrant Massey was "blown away" by the script that revolves around a spaceship which comes close to Earth every day, to collect dead bodies. Arati Kadav's directorial venture, backed by Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, portrays this spaceship as one that doubles up as an 'immigration office' for the dead. "The story was abstract and gorgeous, and I had to read the script in detail to [decipher] what she was saying. It stunned me, and that's when I knew I had to do this film," Massey says of the dark comedy, which attempts to "raise existential questions".

Even as Kadav has attempted to explore such an ambitious subject on a rather small budget, Massey says the scale on which it was being helmed was never a deterrent. "The conviction of the director was paramount. If I am convinced about what I am doing, the money being pumped into it doesn't matter. Arati knew exactly what she wanted. She took us through the CGI work that she was planning to include in it so as to give us a gist of what she had in mind."

Next up, the actor will be seen in the second season of Broken But Beautiful, and will then feature alongside Deepika Padukone in Chhapaak. "My line-up [of films] in 2020 is interesting. I want to challenge myself as an actor and go back to the basics as an artiste."