Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 25, 2015)

Action director Sham Kaushal and his actor-son Vicky both had other plans for themselves. They're happy those nine-to-five jobs did not work out
Kunal Guha (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 9, 2015)

Glowing in the success of his son Vicky Kaushal's critically acclaimed debut as the lead in Masaan, veteran action director Sham Kaushal distinctly remembers the day he learnt about his son's first break. "I was shooting for Aamir's chase sequence in PK in Delhi when I got a call and learnt that Vicky had bagged his first lead in Zubaan (yet to release). I was overcome with emotion, but I didn't know what to do. After a while, I took Rajkumar Hirani to a corner and shared the news with him. That felt very good," smiles the senior Kaushal, who has been the action director of approximately 250 films. Bajrangi Bhaijaan is his latest release, while Phantom and Bajirao Mastani are both set to hit theatres soon.

Strangely, the Kaushal home wasn't very film-oriented. Vicky, who is an electronics and telecommunications engineer from the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, was never curious about his father's profession. He didn't visit him at work or go along for film events. "His first photograph with a star was when I was shooting for Fiza. Vicky and his brother Sunny visited me in Film City to get clicked with Hrithik Roshan," says Sham. Vicky quickly intervenes, "I was in the 10th standard and was really bored at my first film shoot. It took hours to do just one scene," he laughs.

Vicky picked engineering to follow his love for math, but later questioned the career option. "When I was in my second year of engineering, we were taken for an industry visit. I was exposed to the kind of job that would follow my course and I couldn't see myself doing a nine-to-five for the rest of my life," says Vicky. He soon shared his dilemma with his father. The stunt director's entry into the industry also stemmed from the fact that he couldn't suffer a regular job.

Sham had come to Mumbai in the early 80s after completing his masters in English Literature from Punjab's Hoshiarpur. He initially worked as a travelling salesman for a valve manufacturer. This was a forced career choice as he couldn't afford to do his MPhil to pursue his dream of being a college lecturer.

"My father had taken a loan to send me to Mumbai and I couldn't return until I had earned enough to pay it off," Sham says. But once he had managed that, he realised that he wanted out of the staid daily grind. "I used to live in a chawl in Shastri Nagar along with a lot of Punjabi stunt masters. They suggested that I try becoming a 'fighter' in films as I had the required height and body." He remembers requesting Veeru Devgan to sign his form to join the association. Devgan advised him against the profession because he was well educated. "I wasn't a very good stuntman but I would do as instructed. If I was told to fall from a moving car or a horse, I'd do it all. The motivation was that if I did a good job, I'd get referred for another film," he says. Following countless stints as a stuntman, Sham bagged his first as an action director in 1991 for Nana Patekar's Prahaar: The Final Attack.

Remembering his days of struggle in the industry, Sham feels that while he didn't have an alternative, his son refusing to accept a job offer from an IT firm is a bigger sacrifice. "I've been seeing him struggle for the last five years. Going for auditions, getting rejected and all this when he knows that he could've taken up a stable job he got straight from campus," he says. "But knowing that I am doing something which doesn't make me happy wouldn't motivate me to go on," argues Vicky. The actor had felt that his passion for performing arts like dance and theatre could lead to a career in films. "In school and college, I was always a part of skits and dance shows. Being on stage and facing an audience made me feel liberated. The more besharam you are, the more do people enjoy your performance," he adds.

Vicky, though, had been warned by his father that things were never going to be easy. "I wanted to be certain that he wasn't picking this career since I was in the industry. I told him clearly that I am a struggler too and having me as a dad won't help him get a smooth entry into films," says Sham. The action director is also not a believer in backup options. "If you have an escape route, you won't be strong enough to face tough times and I am glad that Vicky was determined to keep at it without considering other options," he adds.

Once Vicky Kaushal had made his mind up, he started bunking college to accompany his father on film sets. "I wanted to learn how the industry functions before diving into it. But when I visited the sets with my dad, they'd treat me as a guest and I wouldn't get an insider's view," he says. From attending shoots, he quickly learnt that was that the assistant directors were the ones involved in every aspect of filmmaking. "They were also the ones who'd get screamed at the most, but it seemed like a job that provided immense learning." Vicky then went on to assist Anurag Kashyap on Gangs of Wasseypur (GOW).

Following his stint as an assistant director, Vicky figured that the foundation of acting for most actors was through theatre. "I started working backstage and in production. I even did tiny acting roles with Naseeruddin Shah, Shernaz Patel, Rajit Kapoor and others. I was willing to do every task assigned to me as long as I could learn," says Vicky. To add to his resume, he also acted in a short film directed by Vasan Bala called Geek Out.

Vicky's big break came when Masaan director Neeraj Ghaywan, also an assistant on GOW, couldn't manage the dates for his lead cast. "Neeraj wanted to show Benaras during the Durga puja and since he didn't have the budget to recreate it, he had to shoot when the puja takes place. It just so happened that the actors he had cast had prior commitments," adds Vicky, who got cast for the role that was originally meant for Rajkummar Rao.

From the accolades that his son received for his performance in the film, the one closest to Sham is the SMS sent to him by Amitabh Bachchan, who refused to believe that Masaan happened to be actor's first. "I was a part of Slumdog Millionaire but we never thought that would get an Oscar. Just like that; we never thought that Masaan would get the kind of reaction that it did," says Sham.

The Kaushals aren't planning for the future yet. They "live in the now" and don't believe in worrying about tomorrow. "I just do my job and my manager, who is God, takes care of the rest. Now I share my manager with my son," smiles the proud father.

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 15, 2015)