After foraying into small screen ventures and various commercial advertisements, Vikrant Massey is all geared up to embark his Bollywood journey as the protagonist in Konkona Sen’s directorial debut ‘A Death in the Gunj’. The actor essays the role of a 23-year-old bong boy Shamul Chaterjee and quips that he couldn’t have asked for more. “One of the people who’ve always supported me is Konkona. It’s a massive challenge to act as a bong guy. I’ve a lot of Bengali friends; so my understanding of the language will help me. More than a bilingual film, this one is a trilingual film.”
In an exclusive interaction with IBNLive.com, the actor reminisced about his journey in this industry, referring to it as a wonderful experience with no regrets. “I started off with television. My journey has been wonderful; people have been patient and very kind to me. It feels amazing how they’ve stood by me and always had faith in my abilities. I have no regrets. I’ve been lucky to work with ‘wonderful storytellers’ like Vikram Aditya Motwani, Alankrita, Zoya in the past.”
While the actor is thankful to the directors who thought he could justify characters in socially relevant ideas including the daily soaps ‘Balika Vadhu’, ‘Baba Aiso Var Dhundho’, he also believes that not every story needs to be socially relevant as this industry is called the ‘entertainment’ industry for a reason. “It’s important to feature storylines that make you ponder over certain things but not every story should be socially relevant. Television is one of the most penetrative mediums, if we can utilise this medium; we definitely should. We are called the entertainment industry for a reason. We need to entertain. We should keep a balance.”
The actor has previously worked in films like ‘Lootera’ and ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ wherein he shared on-screen space with top-notch actors of the industry including Ranveer Singh, Anil Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra to name a few. So, did he feel intimidated by the presence of such big names? “They have all been wonderful co-actors to work with. They’re the best in the industry but when it comes to business, they’re extremely helpful and co-operative.”
Though the actor wishes to work with Mani Ratnam, Imtiaz Ali and Aamir Khan; one director that he’s really keen to have a professional rapport with, is Vishal Bhardwaj. “One director I have been dying to work with is Vishal Bhardwaj. His film Maqbool will always be one of my favourite films. He is a super-talented package; one who writes, who composes, who produces and who directs. The amount of experience and the kind of team he works with; he’s undoubtedly the best technical person you could find.”
Talking about his view on the recent censorship rows in the film industry, the actor honestly quipped, “I think we’re going in reverse. Censorship, liberalism that we used to have before is nowhere to be seen now; it’s unfortunate. Things were far more liberal even during the era of Mirza Ghalib and Byomkesh Bakshi. Rather than moving forward, we’re going back in reverse. Because of the unnecessary censoring, the digital platforms have risen so much in the recent years.The emergence of digital platforms and festival circuits come as a breath of fresh air.”
'A Death in the Gunj' is a ‘coming of age’ story that revolves around the lead character’s conflicted ideas of masculinity. He finds himself navigating the blurred lines of what is accepted in society and questions his own space within the world.
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