It might be the best phase yet in Vikrant Massey’s life, personally and professionally. His film 12th Fail (2023) crossed the 25-week mark recently. The actor’s next, The Sabarmati Report, where he plays a journalist, is already generating great buzz. And the cherry on the cake was Massey welcoming his son Vardaan, earlier this year.

“The last six months have been quite eventful. The success of 12th Fail, wrapping up The Sabarmati Report and it being touted as a much-anticipated release — and then fatherhood. I can easily say that I’m going through an incredible purple patch,” the actor tells us.

12th Fail becoming the first film in 23 years to enjoy a silver jubilee run in theatres was undeniably the happiest moment for the team. The 37-year-old recalls, “I got a call from Vinod sir (Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the film’s director) about the news, and I celebrated this achievement with my family. It’s an unprecedented feat in modern cinema.”

Massey is also aware of how the success of 12th Fail has opened him up to huge expectations hereon, and can already feel the jitters ahead of his next. “It can also be unnerving, this pressure to go out there and meet expectations again. In the back of your head, you know you cannot replicate 12th Fail or any success. You have to start afresh, so I am starting afresh with my next slate of films,” says Massey, who will be seen next in Yaar Jigri, Phir Aayi Haseen Dillruba and Sector 36.

The actor, who’s starred in films such as A Death In The Gunj (2017), Ramprasad ki Tehrvi (2019), Chhapaak (2020) and Haseen Dillruba (2021), wants more films made on “real and rooted” stories.