Living the Celluloid Dream: Meet Masaan's Vicky Kaushal

Vicky Kaushal is on the road, promoting Masaan on a summer night in Bangalore. Having finished a hurried dinner at a bustling restaurant, he's on the drive back to a preview screening to make it in time for the Q&A. It's early Saturday morning here in Los Angeles, and it's raining in July. We had to make the best of a brisk 15-minute phone call.

I begin by telling Vicky that if Neeraj Ghaywan claimed that he had found a civil engineering student in the streets of Benares and cast him as Deepak Chaudhary, I would totally believe him. He bursts into laughter. I meant it. If the trailer is anything to go by, you can see that he is pitch perfect --poised for a stunning debut. This is your first theatrical release. What are the feelings going through you right now? Actually, I started as assistant director on Gangs of Wasseypur. After that, I did theater for 3 years. Then I did thousands of auditions --knocking on doors, going to offices. It's been a journey; it's been a learning process and finally it is that Friday when your first movie is going to release. It's surreal. People tell me "Vicky, you must be very nervous". And I don't know why, I'm not feeling nervous at all. A very positive energy is going through me right now. I don't know why there's a very secure feeling. I'm just living every day like a dream.

Tell us a little bit about who you are and how did you end up here? I was born and brought up in Bombay. I belong to a very Punjabi family. My parents are from Mirzapur, Punjab and they moved to Bombay in 1978, where my dad (Sham Kaushal) became an action director in the Hindi film industry. As a child I was very shy. But I used to always take part in dance competitions, skits or other stage performances. Those few minutes on stage would make me feel very liberated. They would give me the freedom to express myself and I really enjoyed that. Later, I started pursuing engineering, which I finished in 2005. In my second year of college, the faculty would take us for industrial visits to show us the work culture --the future of how we would work. That's when I realized that I didn't want to be an engineer. I began asking myself, "If there were no barriers, if there were no ifs and buts, what would I really want to do?" And that's when I started to think about acting as a profession. I had a job offer when I finished college, but I never took it. I told my father that I want to be an actor. For generations -my dad, my grandfather, have worked really hard and they valued having a secure job. So I was the first one in the family who had a secure job, and didn't want to take it. My father made it very clear to me that "Acting is not going to be lala land. You have to work really hard at your craft and be prepared for a lot of sacrifices". That's how I started my journey.

"When you're living in a city like Bombay, you have the freedom of expressing love...But in a place like Benares, you have to steal those moments."

In the song 'Kisi Rail Si', we see you getting a print of Shaalu's Facebook profile page. It's kind of sweet because it's so old school. Have you ever done that sort of thing in real life? Not really. When you're living in a city like Bombay, you have the freedom of expressing love. You know, when you're in love with somebody, you can always go for a walk together or go to a movie. But in a place like Benares, you have to steal those moments. And that was something new to me too. The credit goes to our writer Varun and director Neeraj to have thought about these moments, and making them as sweet as they come across.

Also read: The Belle from Benares - Meet Masaan's Shweta Tripathi

You play a boy from a lower-caste who is discouraged from pursuing his love interest because of his social tag. What did it mean to you, being able to play Deepak? I had never come across anybody like Deepak. His world was completely unfamiliar to me. Deepak belongs to those communities who work at the crematorium and burn pyres. Neeraj and Varun had done tremendous research of the place and the life in Benares. And I spent 3 weeks in Benares before we began shooting. We went to the main crematorium ground where on an average, they burn 50 to 100 bodies every single day. Neeraj wanted me to study the local dialect of the people, their body language, to understand the psyche of this person, born and brought up in the vicinity of a crematorium; living around dead bodies all his life. Just hearing the stories of people there, really helped me. At the end of the day, all I had to do was surrender myself as an actor to my director, and i was fortunate to have a director who had tremendous clarity about his characters.

"I had to learn how to swim in just 3 days. And then straightaway dive into the Ganga river, for real, and that too in the night!"

Shweta told us that one of her memorable moments during the making of Masaan was how you had to learn to ride a bike on a short notice. Actually, I had to learn quite a few things. Besides learning how to ride a bike, I also learned to swim. And I am aquaphobic. I have an acute phobia of deep water bodies. And I had to learn how to swim in just 3 days. And then straightaway dive into the Ganga river, for real, and that too in the night! You know, the currents of the Ganga are very strong. So to overcome a phobia that you have had for a long, long time -that was something that Masaan gave me. And a lot of other things too. Spending time at the crematorium, I realized that at the end of the day, this is where every human being has to end up -your still body lying on top of logs of wood. It was a very grounding experience. It changed me for the better and I feel very enriched from it all.

"Spending time at the crematorium, I realized that at the end of the day, this is where every human being has to end up -your still body lying on top of logs of wood. It was a very grounding experience."

Also read: 'Mann Kasturi Re is the soul of Masaan - Richa Chadda

Going forward, what are the kind of films that you want to be seen in? Are you open to doing out-and-out commercial films? Of course. I believe that cinema is completely the director's and writer's medium. When you get a script as an actor, it's that character that makes you feel nervous, the one that makes you feel 'how am I going to do it?' -that's the cinema I want to do. As an actor, I have the responsibility to entertain. Whatever the audience's demands are -as an actor, I am here to fulfill them. I can't just go about satisfying the artiste inside me saying, "this is the kind of cinema I like and this is what I'll do". I'm open to doing anything right now. I'm at the age where I want to play different characters, explore myself as an actor.

"More than any actor, it's films that have inspired me. Sometimes I'd come out of a film and I'd live with the attitude for a couple of days."

Who was your role model growing up? Who made you want to be an actor I think everyone in this country would name Amitabh Bachchan. I always feel that that's one person who inspired me. And actually more than any actor, it's films that have inspired me. Sometimes I'd come out of a film and I'd live with the attitude (that the film gave me) for a couple of days. I remember in my 12th grade, Farhan Akhtar's Lakshya came out. It was one month before my exams and I was so motivated, so inspired by that film that I just wanted to do something. I didn't know what exactly, but I wanted to do something! I was so charged! I did well in my exams and I still credit my 12th standard results to that film. Similarly, when I saw Lage Raho Munna Bhai, that completely changed my attitude. It was all about spreading love, you know, that kind of thing. I've been immensely inspired by films and that's what led me to becoming an actor.

Masaan releases in theaters nationwide on Friday, July 24th 2015. It won the FIPRESCI Prize in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes Film Festival, 2015. Vicky Kaushal will be seen next in Zubaan (produced by Guneet Monga), opposite Sarah Jane Dias.