INTERVIEW
Sumit Vyas is no longer a struggling actor. After years of struggle, people have now started noticing him and he is now a YouTube sensation. Having recently famed with TVF web series Permanent Roommates, Vyas’s character, Mikesh, is now the talk of the town.
In a conversation with Guardian 20, he speaks about his survival in the industry and how a web series on YouTube made a superstar out of him.
Q. How long have you been in this industry?
A. I have been into acting since the year 2000. At the age of 17, I started doing theatre actively. I have done some TV shows on and off but mainly I was into theatre.
Q. You have been so long in this industry but you got your share of recognition now. Did it discourage you initially?
A. See, sometimes you feel that you are not getting your share of recognition but I was never after getting recognition. My objective was never to get famous. My prime concern was to do good and interesting roles than get famous along with it. It was never in my mind only to get famous. Getting recognition was always second on my list. I was pretty happy to do interesting roles which I was doing in theatre.
Q. So, is surviving in this industry tough?
A. Yes, it is. Competition is really cut-throat. It is very tough to survive here but if you know what you want exactly from the industry, then it gets a bit easy. I always knew that I like doing certain kind of work and I like doing work with good people. Sometimes I also do roles which I find not very interesting but I do it because of money. But if the role is genuinely good, I will do it, even if the money is less. This is something you do to balance yourself.
Q. How did you land up with the role of Mikesh in Permanent Roomates?
A. I had watched some TVF videos and I knew Nidhi Bisht in TVF as we had done a play together earlier. So, I had texted her that I would like to work with them. By that time, they were only into making short videos. So, they called me up and said that they were going to do something different this time and planning on a web series. It would be a fiction content for YouTube viewers. It started like this.
Q. You are now a very popular face on the internet. How has it changed your career? A.
Definitely, it is a certain kind of recognition where people take you more seriously now. Earlier, people did not like me entering into their offices are calling me for meetings. And relevant people in the industry are noticing my work.
Q. So, has this popularity helped you in gaining film offers? A.
Yes, 100 percent. See, I was doing films earlier also, but now the filmmakers are offering roles which are defi- nitely a change.
Q. Tell us about your theatre days. How has theatre helped you?
A. When I started doing theatre, I was not actually doing very well in my life. I was not doing good in my studies and I had no work to do. I had never read a book or any literature, so for me theatre was more of a training as I was introduced to literature and performing arts through theatre. It was not just a profession to me. It was my lifecoach. That is why I am more attached to theatre and have a continuous association with it. I like the environment here as everyone is only discussing about a kind of work through which they would like to tell a new story.
Q. So, when did you do your first theatre?
A. I did my first theatre back in 2002. It was a play written by Nadira Babbar called Suman Aur Sana where I acted for the first time. Earlier, I was a backstage actor where I used to do all kinds of work like putting chairs from one place to other and
“I get creative satisfaction if I am working with interesting people. And when you are working on an interesting project, then you are creatively satisfied. During the making of English Vinglish, I enjoyed the work environment. Working with Gauri Shinde was really a good experience. She is a very good director plus a good human being. The environment was so good as everyone wanted to contribute something to the film. I enjoyed a lot there. Same happened with Permanent Roommates.”