Bollywood, there is a diff between nepotism and access. - Page 28

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1. News
2. Entertainment
3. Bollywood
4. ‘What happened to me is much better than what I had imagined’

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‘What happened to me is much better than what I had imagined’

• Written by Alaka Sahani
• February 24, 2016 00:00 IST
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A still from Zubaan.

After the success of Masaan, Vicky Kaushal returns on the big screen with Zubaan, a film that gave him his first lead role

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It is interestingly to note that you shot Zubaan, which is releasing on March 4, much before Masaan.

Zubaan is the first film I had signed as a lead. It was an opportunity I was waiting for, coming at a time when I was getting shortlisted for roles but was unable to make the final cut. That was the phase I used to wonder why it is not happening. I have lost count of the number of films I had auditioned for by then. For nearly three years, I used to try for lead roles, supporting characters, ads and anything else that came up.

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I had finished shooting nearly 70 per cent of Zubaan when we started shooting for Masaan. In fact, after shooting for Zubaan from February to May in 2014, we stopped since the film has a winter portion. In the meantime, I shot Masaan.

In Zubaan, you play a very different character. Are you happy that so early on in your career you are able to avoid typecasting?

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I am very happy that I am getting to play such layered and demanding characters. I feel blessed that directors are trusting me with such roles. There is a conscious effort, too, to pick up characters who are as different as possible from each other. This gives me a chance to explore myself as an actor.

How much unlearning did you have to do when you went back to the sets of Zubaan?

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I had to understand why the character runs away from music. Personally, I had to understand why the film’s director, Mozez Singh, came up with such a character, and talking to him gave me a good understanding of it. That apart, the character stammers and I had to study that too. I used to visit a speech therapist in Pune, sitting through sessions and interacting with his patients. Initially reluctant, they started sharing their stories and fears with me. Later, when my stutter started sounding natural, the doctor asked me to stop doing it. He said: ‘By imitating it frequently, one can actually develop it’.

And how did you prepare for Masaan?

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When I got Masaan, I was happy that I was getting to play Deepak’s character. But I could not relate to it or visualise the world he belongs to. Initially, I sat down with Neeraj Ghaywan and Varun Grover to understand his character. My first reference film was Children of Pyre. I used to put the audio of it on and go to sleep. I wanted to make the sounding of burning pyre and ‘Ram naam satya hai’ very mundane. I realised that I have to be there for some time to understand the people and place.

After three years of struggle, how did roles start coming your way?

All of it happened through auditions. Zubaan’s casting director was Mukesh Chhabra. Singh, the film’s director, was taking the auditions himself. It was a very intense and gruelling process. I was called every day for a week to audition for it — enacting different scenes and improvising. I even did a photoshoot with Sarah-Jane Dias, who was already cast, before I was confirmed for it. For Raman Raghav 2.0, directed by Anurag Kashyap, I got a call from him saying that he wanted to test. He said: ‘The biggest hindrance in casting the role of a cop, a complex character, was that you are good boy’. He asked me to read my scenes and said that he would test me after five days. For five days, I moved to our home in Madh Island and isolated myself. Anurag is my mentor and if he says that he wants an extra like me in a scene, I would gladly do that.

Vicky Kaushal: From being an engineer to becoming an actor

Hindustan Times | ByArundhati Chatterjee, Mumbai

Jun 25, 2016 01:59 PM IST

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Vicky Kaushal had the logical Indian dream: study, become an engineer, get a job. Instead, he wandered into Anurag Kashyap’s office, hung around for months, and became an actor

Actors around the world have to wait for years to walk the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. But not Vicky Kaushal. The 28-year-old actor just can’t shake off the Cannes connection. In a four-year career, he’s already been there twice.

The first movie he worked on as an assistant director (AD) — Gangs of Wasseypur — premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2012. Like most ADs, Kaushal didn’t get a chance to fly to France for the screening.

Three years later, in 2015, when director Neeraj Ghaywan’s Masaan (2015) bagged two honours in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival, Kaushal travelled to Cannes for the first time. Critics and viewers heaped praise on the debutant actor. His portrayal of a small-town boy with strong shades of innocence in the first half, and an overwhelming angst in the second spoke volumes of his acting prowess.

Kaushal will be seen in Anurag Kashyap’s upcoming thriller, Raman Raghav 2.0 (Photo: HT FILE)

Kaushal recalls being “thrilled” to be at Cannes. Earlier this year, the young actor returned to the French Riviera with film-maker Anurag Kashyap’s recent thriller, Raman Raghav 2.0. But Kaushal confesses, this time around, “the thrill of the first time was missing”. On the other hand, he already “knew the Cannes drill” — the interviews, the screenings, the photo-ops.

Read: Film, theatre, 4,000km biking expedition: Kalki Koechlin is busier than ever

Last week, we caught up with the actor at his Andheri residence, when he was between interviews and shoots ahead of the film’s release. The chirpy, excited actor that he is, in an hour-long conversation, he told us all about his first stage performance, his go-to breakfast, his favourite pastime, his final-year placement interview drills and his work. He also made impressions of Naseeruddin Shah, Kashyap, and copied Hrithik Roshan’s dance moves.

Far from the filmi crowd

Bollywood’s award-winning action director Sham Kaushal’s son, Vicky, was born in a chawl in Malad. Although his father was working on multiple films, he doesn’t remember visiting the sets often. “The sets were my father’s workplace. We didn’t have any film-related conversations over dinner. It was nothing out of the ordinary,” Kaushal says. In fact, it was not until he was 10 that he visited the sets of a film. It was during Fiza, he recalls. A self-confessed Hrithik Roshan fan, Kaushal was “super excited” to meet him. But after an hour on the sets, the then-10-year-old Kaushal got bored of watching re-takes and wanted to play cricket instead.

Kaushal plays a troubled cop with a history of substance abuse in Raman Raghav 2.0 (Photo: Pramod Thakur/HT)

However, his childhood memories do include being pampered by the bigwigs of Bollywood. “My father would schedule meetings over breakfast. Film-makers such as Rakesh Roshan and Prakash Jha have seen me as a child run around the house,” he says. In those days, he confesses, he used to be a geek and his goal was to “clear exams, pursue engineering and get a job”. A dream he followed until his second year of engineering.

Turning point

Like most engineering students, Kaushal (a student of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, Versova) was kicked about the industrial visit, popularly known as the IV. The IV gives students an idea of the kind of job they will do for the rest of their lives. Kaushal got a reality check instead. “I saw those men, sitting behind computer screens for hours. That was not for me. But I completed the course. I didn’t have any other choice or plan,” he says.

Read: Radhika Apte: Theatre actor to thinking cinema’s poster child

Being actively involved in drama during his school and college days, he believed that he knew a thing or two about acting. But a Hamlet-esque dilemma loomed large: to act or not to act professionally. After months of toying with the idea, Kaushal decided to experience everything that happens behind the scenes of a film. He resolved to assist. “I didn’t ask my father to put me in touch with people. I wanted to be a self-made man like him. I started visiting Phantom’s office in Andheri to meet Anurag, and, several months later, Gangs of Waseypur happened,” says Kaushal. The following year, he enrolled himself for acting workshops, and simultaneously worked with theatre groups like Manav Kaul’s Aranya and Naseeruddin Shah’s Motley.

Kaushal has also acted in Zubaan (2015) (Photo: HT FILE)

“I was doing bit roles in theatre, and sometimes, I was only making the opening announcement. But I was enjoying myself. At the same time, I would go for multiple auditions. I would make it till the final round, and then something would not work out. This went on for months, before Zubaan (2015) and Masaan happened,” says the actor.

The Kashyap connection

Kaushal’s limited filmography extensively features Kashyap’s productions — an AD credit for GoW, his debut in Masaan (produced by Kashyap), a bit role in Bombay Velvet (2015; directed by Kashyap) and now Raman Raghav 2.0, where he will be seen playing a troubled cop with a history of substance abuse.

But the actor doesn’t like being tagged as part of the Kashyap camp. “He is like family to me. I would do any role for any of his projects,” he adds. All the roles he has portrayed have been challenging, he says. Playing the cop with a drug and alcohol addiction, especially, since he’s a teetotaller. As part of the preparation, Kaushal locked himself up in a room without electricity, mobile or a telephone connection for five days. At the end of the five days, he says he was “frustrated and that kind of helped”. He would also practise snorting using glucose and corn powder.

“I did all that to tap into my dark side. To stay in that space, I would not interact with anybody on the sets. Only Anurag was allowed to talk to me or inform me if the shot was ready. It was my only way to stay in character,” he says. This is not the first time that he stayed silent on the sets. Even while filming the intense scenes of Masaan, he didn’t talk on the sets to be in the character.

In a four-year career, Kaushal has attended the prestigious Cannes Film Festival twice (Hindustan Times)

Live action

It’s easy to spot a stark difference between the kinds of films his father works on and the projects he chooses. A low-caste Varanasi boy, a stutterer and a troubled police officer. His father, on the other hand, worked in mainstream films such as Rab ne Bana di Jodi (2008), Rajneeti (2010), Ishaqzaade (2012), Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012), Kill Dil (2014) and PK (2014). This difference of sensibility, he says, is not deliberate. “I am still a child when it comes to films. Films choose me, I don’t choose them. It’s not as if anyone’s writing films for me. I would like to take up any kind of film that comes my way, if I find the story interesting and challenging,” Kaushal says.

The dark side

Anurag Kashyap’s thriller, Raman Raghav 2.0 is set in the 1960s. The story is based on the real-life serial killer Raman Raghav (played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui), who was guilty of murdering over 40 people in Mumbai. Kaushal plays the cop, who has a substance abuse

habit. The film releases today (June 24).

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Anupama to Vicky:

Hum toh doobenge sanam...

Saath me tujhe bhi le doobenge😆

Originally posted by: rckRadhe

https://giphy.com/gifs/Luv-Films-ranbir-kapoor-ranbirkapoor-shraddhakapoor-SIqR0nY5kcVgSTFlUP

Having access in a nepotistic India with talent is great ... 👍🏼

My god, just look at the amount of CGI used on this face. This should be illegal. This is like virtual plastic surgery.

Originally posted by: return_to_hades

All of them!

If he wasn't his dad's son, he would be one of the hundreds of struggling actors who don't get a break. Because he knew someone inside the industry he could secure auditions and opportunities that even outsiders with agents cannot even dream of.

Originally posted by: return_to_hades

All of them!

If he wasn't his dad's son, he would be one of the hundreds of struggling actors who don't get a break. Because he knew someone inside the industry he could secure auditions and opportunities that even outsiders with agents cannot even dream of.

I would definitely call this access because he got the audition because of his dad. Highly doubt anyone gave him a role because of his dad.

If we start including access under nepotism, what else is not? If my parents buy me a faster laptop? If I have access to classical music?

Originally posted by: HearMeRoar

I would definitely call this access because he got the audition because of his dad. Highly doubt anyone gave him a role because of his dad.

If we start including access under nepotism, what else is not? If my parents buy me a faster laptop? If I have access to classical music?

I just wanted to add plenty of outsiders who Bling global manages are invited to audition too. I know someone who was managed by them who got invited to audition for Raees and what not. And if Vicky was selected through these auditions he def had something over every other person that auditioned. Either outsider or insider. That is merit.

Originally posted by: HearMeRoar

I would definitely call this access because he got the audition because of his dad. Highly doubt anyone gave him a role because of his dad.

If we start including access under nepotism, what else is not? If my parents buy me a faster laptop? If I have access to classical music?

By definition, all the following scenarios are examples of nepotism. You are narrowly defining nepotism as the bolded.

• I introduced you to a hiring manager because of your father = nepotism
• I invited you to a party where you will meet many hiring managers to network because of your father = nepotism
• I invited you for an interview because of your father = nepotism
• I gave you interview questions or inside intel on our hiring process because of your father = nepotism
• I advanced you to subsequent rounds of selection because of your father = nepotism
• I recommended you to the hiring manager because of your father = nepotism
• I asked the hiring manager to lower the bar for you because of your father = nepotism
• I gave you the job on a platter because of your father = nepotism
• I gave you a second job even though you sucked at your first job because of your father = nepotism

Originally posted by: return_to_hades

By definition, all the following scenarios are examples of nepotism. You are narrowly defining nepotism as the bolded.

• I introduced you to a hiring manager because of your father = nepotism
• I invited you to a party where you will meet many hiring managers to network because of your father = nepotism
• I invited you for an interview because of your father = nepotism
• I gave you interview questions or inside intel on our hiring process because of your father = nepotism
• I advanced you to subsequent rounds of selection because of your father = nepotism
• I recommended you to the hiring manager because of your father = nepotism
• I asked the hiring manager to lower the bar for you because of your father = nepotism
• I gave you the job on a platter because of your father = nepotism
• I gave you a second job even though you sucked at your first job because of your father = nepotism

Going to wonder a bit at the statements that I wouldn't think dishonesty is nepotism.

I'm defining all of the bolded as nepotism because that should happen on merit alone.

Up to the interview level is just access. Everything from then should be based on your (honest) performance.

Originally posted by: HearMeRoar

Going to wonder a bit at the statements that I wouldn't think dishonesty is nepotism.

I'm defining all of the bolded as nepotism because that should happen on merit alone.

Up to the interview level is just access. Everything from then should be based on your (honest) performance.

This clarifies a lot. Thanks. It seemed you were only focused on getting the job.

You may not think access is nepotism. But to many talented aspiring actors, the fact that people with inside connections get auditions is extremely grating. It is nepotism.

But what you deem as dishonesty is extremely common with jobs. So many jobs it's not what you know but who you know.