‘AFTER URI, I HAVEN’T PLAYED SAFE’
Vicky Kaushal says that he ‘lives a lot in the present’ and doesn’t have a ‘planning-driven mind’; adds he always dreamt about working with Shoojit Sircar
He has clearly been on a dream run since 2018, thanks to back-to-back hits such as Raazi, Lust
Stories, Sanju and Manmarziyaan, followed by last year’s blockbuster, Uri:
The Surgical Strike. Now, 2020 also promises to be equally exciting for Vicky Kaushal, as he readies for the release of his first horror film, produced by Karan Johar and Sardar Udham Singh that’s been directed by Shoojit Sircar. But the actor says he doesn’t “believe in planning”.
“Mera dimaag waise chalta hi nahi hai,” he says, adding: “I live a lot in the present and don’t have a planning-driven mind (laughs). Instead of thinking about what I will do in the next three or five years, I am always thinking, ‘whatever I am doing, I should just do it to the best of my capability’. My functioning or programming is such that I don’t ever think like, ‘oh, ab kya hoga dekhtein hain, ya ab mujhe kya mil jaayega’. My mind, on its own, doesn’t work that way.”
Vicky strongly believes that if “planning doesn’t happen organically, then he doesn’t want to put any effort into it”. He adds, “I know that there has to be a basic level of planning, which you can go ahead with. But it’s not a part of my personality at all. I just don’t think that way, ke ‘now that I am this old, so I should be doing this or that’. Till now, the kind of life I have led shows that God has been kind and I have got more than what I had dreamt of. So, my focus is just on the present. Aage jo hoga uske liye aap plan waise bhi nahi kar sakte.”
Vis-à-vis his 2020 releases, what Vicky is most kicked about is the variety on offer. “My next, for starters, is an out-and-out horror film that hasn’t been explored for some time now. Ho sakta hai it may work or it may not get accepted at all,” he says, adding, “But one thing is for sure — after Uri, I haven’t played safe at all. When I read the script of my next film, something in it struck me, and I said yes to it immediately. And then Sardar Udham Singh will see me in a completely different world. That film is with a director [Shoojit Sircar] who I always used to dream of working with. Unse bahut kucch seekhne ko mila, so that process has given me a different kind of happiness.”
This year will also see the actor work on several biggies — Karan Johar’s ambitious period drama, Takht followed by the Sam Manekshaw biopic (directed by Meghna Gulzar), and Uri director Aditya Dhar’s next, Ashwatthama. Ask him if he looks forward to back-to-back biggies, and he says, “I don’t know how things are going to pan out. But I feel I am still very new to understand ki kaisa hoga sab kuch. And I also believe a lot in destiny and karma. So, my entire focus is on ke abhi main kya kar raha hoon. Baaki dekhtein hai aage kya hoga. I, on my part, just want to keep working with the right intent and all the positivity.”
Instead of thinking about what I will do in the next three or five years, I am always thinking, ‘whatever I am doing, I should just do it to the best of my capability’.
VICKY KAUSHAL ACTOR