Vijay Varma is seamlessly marking his territory by playing the villain, but not just any villain. He played Anand Swarnakar, a psychopath serial killer, in Dahaad — his latest web show that also starred actors Sonakshi Sinha and Gulshan Devaiah. “I am over the moon,” says the actor, about all the love and adulation coming his way.

Last year, he caught the audience’s attention as the vile husband physically and emotionally abusing his wife in Darlings. In a candid conversation, the actor shares insights into his approach when it comes to playing such complex roles.

Does the 37-year-old not fear getting stereotyped for playing twisted characters one after another? “I wouldn’t be surprised if I got typecast. But I’m not worried because I have enough in my arsenal to kind of change that [image]. For now, I am enjoying being deliciously evil.”

Ask him about the prep that goes into portraying such challenging parts, and Varma shares, “The exterior of the personality is fairly easy to understand, but there’s so much happening in your head. Some of the actions, you just don’t understand why anybody would do this. So, it took me some time to understand that aspect.”

He adds, “I had a love-hate relationship playing this part (in Dahaad) because I loved the idea of being this mysterious serial killer, but I hated the effects of it.”

Does playing repugnant characters play with his mind? “They impact me [a bit], but not to the extent that they would take a toll on my mental health. I enjoyed the effects that they create in the audience’s minds,” says the actor, who will next be seen in the OTT project The Devotion Of Suspect X alongside actor Kareena Kapoor Khan.

The actor, who visited Cannes this year, last visited the film festival 10 years ago, for Monsoon Shootout: “Earlier, I was a wide-eyed, optimistic and idealistic young actor at the festival. I was like a child in a candy store. And then, life happened. It took years for me to find an audience for my work and for any kind of success to happen. So, visiting Cannes this year was like life coming full circle; it was a reunion where I met my younger self.”  

Varma has been a part of crime thrillers such as She and Mirzapur: “Crime has always been a fascinating genre; I feel, as a species, we are obsessed with watching violence or crime, maybe because it constantly exists around us in some form or the other. Having said that, we definitely need more comedies and that too, with intelligent humour.”