TLI Staff
New Delhi: National award winning actor Vicky Kaushal has come a long way in five years since he landed a lead role in Masaan that made filmmakers sit up and take notice of his talent.
The Uri actor interestingly never in the first place wanted to become an actor and was in fact content living life of an engineer, but destiny had other plans, and one fine day while he was a visit to an industrial location, he suddenly realised he didn’t want to do this. In a chat show, Starry Nights GEN Y with Komal Nahta, the actor opened up on his struggling days.
“During my engineering tenure, I never thought of being an actor. Visiting an industrial place gave me clear goals and made me realize what I didn’t want to do in life. I channelled my thoughts and interest only to realize performing is what I love the most.”
Vicky’s father Sham Kaushal who has been an action director in the film industry wanted his son to have a sedentary desk job so that steady income came.
“My father was quite astonished when I broke out the news of pursuing acting as a career. He was always of the opinion that one of the family members would have a sedentary life with a desk job paying fixed income on monthly basis and vacationing in Diwali with all the family members,” he added.
However, the talented actor was never sure about being an actor and had a lot of self-doubt before beginning his journey. “The first time I said to myself that I wanted to be an actor, it wasn’t a full stop, it was a question mark,” he said.
The actor started his journey with Anurag Kashyap as he assisted him on the sets of Gangs of Wasseypur. He did tiny roles in his other films too like Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana, Geek Out and Bombay Velvet before he landed lead role in Masaan, directed by Neeraj Ghaywan.
His struggles however felt never-ending at one point when he waited in long audition queues and knocked doors to get a chance in a project.
“I would feel that if I have bumped into Rajkumar Rao at the auditions, I know I’m not getting the part” says Vicky Kaushal.
Remembering his earlier days, Vicky Kaushal said, “My allowance in my early days was Rs 600 a month which came up to Rs 20 a day. A life lesson learnt in my upbringing and hence whatever I earn now, it’s really special to me and I hold onto it.”
Appreciating his parents and giving them due credit for his success, Vicky says, “My mom and dad made it very clear when we were growing up that they are going to provide us with all the necessities but never with luxuries. That is something that Sunny (his brother who’s also an actor) and I had to earn ourselves”
He is all praises for his fellow actor and National award winning star Ayushman Khurana. “With Ayushmann, his selection of scripts and the way he has just moulded a niche for himself is absolutely amazing. It’s a dream for every actor.”
“Now I stand on the same platform as the people I used to look up to and that for me is my biggest milestone”, the actor said on his definition of success.