As a Kashmiri, Vedang Raina had a special moment recently as he went back to his roots at the inaugural edition of the International Film Festival of Jammu And Kashmir, where his film Main Vaapas Aaunga was chosen to close the festival last week.

“I was going back to Kashmir only for the second time in my entire life and that place is very special to me as it is home. I wanted an excuse to go to Srinagar and when this opportunity came, it was the perfect match. To go there with a film of mine, my parents felt the proudest and emotional that I was doing something to give back to the people of where I come from,” he says.

Main Vaapas Aaunga is about leaving your home and everything you have had, and the want to come back home, and the actor insists that feeling resonates with the people in Kashmir more so.

“They have faced very testing incidents be it the Partition, or what happened during the ’90s (with Kashmiri Pandits), while it was different, the emotion of leaving everything behind and then start afresh remains,” he says.

Getting appreciated and accepted from the people of Kashmir felt different for Vedang: “I didn’t even realize what kind of an audience Kashmir has for movies. I know that people there care about art and culture, but it’s through this film festival, I got to learn more about them. Whatever I can do to contribute to the culture of cinema being celebrated there, I wanted to do as it’s long overdue. Kashmir deserves a lot more theatre and connection to cinema, and being able to contribute to that feels special. People in Kashmir feel like family.”

Raving about Kashmir and its beauty and culture, Vedang says, “I just love the landscape. This time, I only got to go to Srinagar, but when you go to Pahalgam and Gulmarg, there's few places in India that are more gorgeous than that. Also the food, this time I had a proper Wazwan in Kashmir, which was amazing. I love Kashmiri food. And I also had the walnut fudge, and that is probably one of my favorite things. I got back home a lot too. Hopefully it'll survive for a while.”

Even though he is Kashmiri, it was actually filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, who turned out to be more well versed than him about the place.

“I have a connection with the place but Imatiz Ali sir knows Kashmir way better than I do. He knows even the smallest places there, and when me and Sharvari were thinking of where to go, what to eat, Imtiaz sir knew it all,” he laughs, adding that he hopes to do a film set in Kashmir with Imtiaz. “If there's an opportunity that takes me to Kashmir, and if it's for a film shoot, that's even better. It means I will get to spend so much more time there. If Imtiaz sir writes it, that would be a dream come true. If he decides to cast me in it, I hope that's something that comes to fruition,” he says.

Vedang Raina has been riding high after the success of Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga. The 26-year-old actor has been praised for his strong performance in the romantic drama that revolves around the partition period in 1947. It wasn’t just a film for Raina, but a redemption after Jigra (2024), and an eye-opener in a lot of ways, as he holds the film responsible for changing his perspective on the significance of Independence Day and what it meant for the country back then. Excerpt:

No, I still don’t think it’s the biggest movie of the year. But it’s done its bit and found its audience. I’m very grateful for that. While shooting the only thing I understood at that time was that it’s an honour to be part of a film in which Imtiaz Ali is directing, and to be playing the younger version of Naseeruddin Shah. I think those two things were like the highlight of my journey in this industry.

It wasn’t really like a narration, not in the typical sense. With him, it was like he had certain ideas in his head. It lasted maybe two minutes, and he spoke about the concept of the film. And this is the character I want you to play. And for me, it was the fact that Imtiaz sir was making it. I said, okay, fine. Like, I’m on it. Let me know when we start.

I feel this immense sense of belonging to the country and an immense sense of pride. After Main Vaapas Aaunga, I’ve had a different outlook on what that day meant, how much it means to the people and how important it was in the history of our country. As a kid, I did not get into it that much. But now, I really got in-depth into what that day was like for so many people. And what it stands for now.

Yes, 100%. That was probably the most important thing that I did in pre-production. Sharvari and I went to the partition museum in Amritsar. We spent four hours there. The museum was amazing, but it was those anecdotes from the people. There were 15-20 minute videos of actual people who went through that partition journey. And what that migration was like for them. That experience was really important.

The Radcliffe Line [drawn by Sir Cyril Radcliffe] that we know of: I didn’t know that Sir Radcliffe hadn’t ever been in India before. He came here for a few weeks, and he was in his hotel room. And he had so much pressure from the higher-ups to make the line between India and Pakistan that he didn’t really get to go talk to the people, understand what it means, what those areas mean, what those people are like in those places. And for them, it was kind of just like a line that they drew. Which sounds so terrible. Lahore was such a big part of Indian culture. It was the heart of India. What we call Madhya Pradesh right now was Lahore because that was kind of central India. It was not the capital, but it was the hub of culture, art, music and movies. What Mumbai is now, the stars of that time used to stay in Lahore and everything used to come from there... And I’m thinking just that line could have changed the lives of maybe 1000s of people.

I must have heard stories about the partition, but also we are from Kashmir. My grandparents were in Kashmir at that time. So, it was different for them. They didn’t experience any migration at that time. Later they did, of course. My nana used to talk about how things were, what Mahatma Gandhi was doing, what Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru ji was doing, and what the political climate was. He is very politically aware. He’s always had very strong opinions on politics.

Yeah, I’d say not as extreme as him. I do have political opinions, and I do have strong opinions.

(Laughs) 100 per cent they will. We’ve seen a little whiff of what social media and something that is an important subject to our country means in recent times, right? And just imagine something like the partition [happening]. Well, there would be one side where Gen Z would be making those reels, but also we are such a strong collective voice now. And not just Gen Z, but all generations. Because of social media, we have a strong, collective voice that cannot be ignored. That is something that we’ve proven.

His relationship status sparks almost as much curiosity as his film choices. Fresh off the success of Main Vaapas Aaunga, a film that went from a disappointing start to one of the year’s most talked-about success stories, Vedang Raina has plenty on his mind.

For starters, the 25-year-old confirms that he “is currently single”. Notably, he was rumoured to be dating actor Khushi Kapoor. Asked what attracts him to someone, he says with a smile, “Kindness. There are other qualities too, but if you are not kind, everything else falls flat.”

Raina is still processing the extraordinary journey of his latest release. “It’s been quite overwhelming. The first couple of days or three days was a lot to take in. There were a lot of things being said about the film, which is now being unanimously loved by critics and audiences. The screenings that we went for... I have never seen reactions like that, and I felt it had to amount to something,” he says.

The film’s poor initial box-office performance left him disheartened: “It was very shattering. And then the turnaround took place. I guess it makes this entire thing even more special. There is no other example where it happened like this. I regained my faith in the fact that good films will find an audience.”

The actor believes the film’s success has offered reassurance to filmmakers across the industry. “If the product is good, people are going to love it regardless of all things around,” he says.

Among the many compliments he received, one mattered more than the rest. “I think the compliment that matters to me the most is always going to be Imtiaz (Ali) sir’s,” he says, admitting he put immense pressure on himself while playing the younger version of veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah.