Director Lakshmipriya Devi’s debut film Boong has made history as the first Indian movie to win a BAFTA Award. Actor Vikram Kochhar, the only Bollywood name in the Manipuri-language film, calls the moment “extremely elating” yet bittersweet.

“It’s a proud moment for all of us, especially with Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulating the team. I’m happy my choice to back indie cinema paid off. But it’s also sad that we’re celebrating the film only after the West recognised it,” he says.

Released last year, the film struggled for screens in India. “My parents in Hyderabad and friends in Bengaluru couldn’t watch it due to no-shows. It did well at festivals and in the UK, but back home, it’s a brutal reality. We watch global content like K-dramas, yet we failed to support our own,” Vikram adds.

The 42-year-old reveals he signed the film while shooting Dunki (2023) where Lakshmipriya was assisting director Rajkumar Hirani.

He shares, “Raju sir even offered me an ad with actors Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi, but I turned it down as I had committed to Boong. I believed in the film, just never imagined it would win a BAFTA.”

They say don’t meet your heroes. Vikram Kochhar would disagree because he experienced the opposite when he worked with superstar Shah Rukh Khan in Dunki. Kochhar, like many others, had been an admirer of Khan, but sharing screen space with him has made him a bigger fan.

“I am a bigger fan of Shah Rukh Khan, the human being, than the actor because he is so humble, collaborative, and inclusive. It was like being with a friend. I felt closest to him on the set,”

Kochhar chuckles. The actor plays one of Khan’s close friends in the Rajkumar Hirani directorial that revolves around a group of youngsters from Punjab travelling to London using illegal route.

Recalling his first day on set with the King of Bollywood, Kochhar says he was so in awe of the star that he wanted to watch him at work rather than shoot his scenes.

“I didn’t want to step in front of him. I first met him during the readings at his place. He would ask us to jump on his sofa and improvise. I celebrated one of my birthdays on set; he came and cut the cake with us, which made me feel so special,” he says, adding that there were also a lot of learnings on the set of Dunki.

In addition to Hirani’s approach, where the director provides precise guidance to each actor, it was also Khan’s words of wisdom that made a lasting impression on Kochhar.

“Both Raju sir and Shah Rukh sir are always looking at what translates on screen. Whereas we, especially coming from a theatre background, want to internalize the character and [find the right] motivation to play it,” shares Kochhar, who found his motivation in Khan’s advice.

“He said, ‘I have been working in this industry for so long, so if I have to romance a stone, I can do that as well because I am a romantic hero. That’s my job.’ [We learned that] if we aren’t getting motivation to perform a character, we should [learn to] find it,” he says, hoping that being part of the film “changes the kind of projects that come my way.”