An avid fan of Mirzapur, Vijay Varma remembers devouring the first season when it dropped online in 2018. Two years since, the actor finds himself standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Pankaj Tripathi and Ali Fazal in the upcoming second edition. "The prospect of being part of the show was exciting. I joined them soon after [the release of Gully Boy] in 2019. The role was meaty enough to sink my teeth into; the character and his family served as an interesting addition to the world. They do a lot to pique interest," says Varma, who plays a goon in the Gurmmeet Singh-directed crime drama.

Having spent several years in the industry exploring roles that could bring him in the spotlight, the actor is aware that Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy (2019) was the turning point of his career. "Towards the close of the film's shoot, I had asked Zoya why she cast me, and she said she felt something within me had been broken. I was not in the best [mental state] because I had seen enough failures to understand that the films I was doing were not going to [be hits]. Gully Boy was a big project that brought me alongside the finest actors. The film's success took me by surprise."

The actor adds that if he were to put a finger on why his act as the street-smart Moeen Arif earned him fame, he would attribute it to the way the morally grey character was written.