Subhash K Jha shines the light on Vijay Deverakondaks career, his reel and real life and more, plus we hear from the actor in this special birthday feature.
Vijay Deverakonda, who turns a year older today, shot to superstardom with Arjun Reddy in 2017, Vijay made his debut 6 years earlier on Nuvvila. This was the Telugu film that also introduced Yami Gautam. Vijay says he is proud of his debut film and performance , although superstardom came later. He urged me to see it and even sent me a DVD of it. He is right. It is an accomplished performance.
Arjun Reddy was initially planned with another Telugu star actor Sharwanand. But the director was unable to get a producer for the project. This is when director Sandeep Vanga got Vijay Deverakonda into the project and Vanga’s brother agreed to produce . The startling film had the critics gagging on its alleged misogyny and the MeToo accusations. Vijay distanced himself from his character and said to me, “I most certainly don’t approve of the way Arjun Reddy behaves with women or for that matter men. Live and let live. Cause no harm. Mind your own business. Chill and be happy. These are my moral standards, that’s all I’ll hold myself responsible to. Nope, #MeToo hasn’t changed my rapport with my co-actors. I am as chilled out with them as they’re with me. I don’t know what impact it has had on the industry, but the concept of harassment anywhere makes me pissed from my core.”
In his career of fourteen years Vijay has made two guest appearances, both unbilled. The first was in the Malayalam masterpiece Kumalangi Nights where Vijay was seen fleetingly in a movie theatre. The second guest appearance was in the recent comedy blockbuster Jathi Ratnalu where he played a guy in a blue shirt and was billed the ‘blue-shirted’ guy. Blue is Vijay’s favourite colour.
Though he loves his family and wants to place the sun moon and stars at his parents’ feet , Vijay is basically a loner. He loves to take off for long European trips on his own exploring areas that remain generally unexplored. Though he was shown to be an alcoholic in Arjun Reddy, Vijay is not fond of alcohol. He did not drown inebriating beverages to remain in character in Arjun Reddy . His logic being, “If I was drunk how would I act?”
Sandeep Vanga wanted Vijay to do the Hindi version of Arjun Reddy. But sorry, no remakes for Vijay. Vijay politely refused to do the Hindi remake. He had done that, been there. Vijay wanted to explore other characters, play people who are less socially unacceptable than Arjun Reddy. “Isn’t a remake like doing the same thing, going through the same emotions, twice and therefore inherently artificial?” he once asked me.
His Hindi debut Liger (earlier called Fighter) is an original script . When Shahid Kapoor was signed to do the Hindi version of Arjun Reddy Vijay was delighted. Vijay is a Shahid fan. He told me, “I used to trip on Shahid’s debut film Ishq Vishk and I struggled for days to get tickets to see him in Kaminey. I danced my ass off to ‘Dhan-tanaa’ from Kaminey with my friends behind closed doors. So it’s extremely strange when I think of the fact that he is playing the role I did. I am sure he will have his own interpretation. Other than that, I just wish them the best and will wait to watch it like any other member of the audience.”
The turning point, and not in a good way, was Liger was an embarrassment for all, the perpetrators and the spectators like. The film’s failure affected Vijay profoundly. He overnight severed all relations with Puri and withdrew into a shell.
It is time for Vijay Deverakonda to move on.
When I saw Vijay Deverakonda in the Telugu film Arjun Reddy I knew I was looking at a very special actor. Vijay was fresh original and angry. He was a rebel. I don’t know about the cause. But there was definitely a lot of applause, and the brickbats too. A noisy section of the audience found Arjun Reddy misogynistic and toxic, which he was; when did Vijay deny it?!
“But isn’t cinema supposed to show us the mirror of social reality, and doesn’t the mirror also show us the ugly side of life? As an actor who likes challenges I’d like to explore the dark side of human behaviour,” Vijay argued angrily.
Arjun Reddy exhausted Vijay. He had to be constantly probing into the darkest areas of his consciousness, digging out feelings and tapping into emotions he had never touched within himself. Unlike Arjun, Vijay is not demonstrative about his feelings. In fact, Arjun has kept it all locked up within myself all his life. That’s why Arjun Reddy was very hard for Vijay. The character was constantly deep-diving into grey and dark areas of his subconscious. Left to himself Vijay would have never gone there.
Arjun Reddy was shades darker than anything we had seen in Indian cinema. It shook not only Telugu cinema, it also made Bollywood a little insecure about the future of screen heroism.
Looking back Vijay admits Arjun was a scumbag who treated his loved ones with scant respect. “And he needed to slapped hard. Arjun was not a role model, who said he was? I didn’t! We knew we were doing something never done before, at least not in Telugu cinema. We were sure we’d make some kind of an impact. It went much further than we expected.”
When I saw Vijay in Dear Comrade I thought he was still very angry; this time about sexual harassment of women at the work place.
“And why just women, men get bullied and harassed too. Almost all my female friends have at one time or the other been pinched, groped or at least touched inappropriately. This makes me very very angry. Why can’t we create a healthy friendly comfortable work-atmosphere for women and yes, men too?” Vijay raised a pertinent point.
Here was actor who wasn’t in this for the money and fame alone. Vijay wanted to make a difference. His fan following was swelling in waves during hightide. Girls swooned over him. The guys wanted to dress like him. And the kids loved him the most. Vijay’s fans are called ‘rowdies’ affectionately. He loves them , gifts them with tokens of his appreciation.
I remember for one birthday Vijay was on the streets distributing free ice cream to underprivileged kids. Whatever he did made news. Through the superstardom that hit him with meteoric celerity Vijay remained unchanged; at least he was and he still remains the same with me. Unlike some actor who change every Friday, this guy is rock-solid in his allegiances and belief.
