Vijay Varma has just had a most eventful night. He sips coffee while striking paraphernalia surrounds his unassuming, cheery frame. On the shelf: some books, a floral arrangement and a collage of Andy Warholian visages. What is it called? The Vijays. In an AIB roast, the hosts ridicule this uneventful name. And yet, grinning with joy in elegant casuals, Varma cuts an impressive figure that hearkens back to the annals of ’70s Hindi cinema and looms into view the sweltering, veiny, bush-haired, velcro-chested Amitabh Bachchan, who was named, in a royal screw you across time, Vijay Verma, never mind the different spelling. Varma has more in common with the iconic Deewar (1975) character than just that. In his upcoming venture, a Sujoy Ghosh joint, he plays a cop. After being starched in the fabric of an unalloyed douchebag in so many films—Pink (2015), Darlings (2022), Dahaad (2023) and Lust Stories 2 (2023) to name a few—Varma seems to be back with a vengeance. Or maybe it’s just a random undulation of destiny, a spray of serendipity. He makes no bones about it.
“I have endured a long, long night of gaming,” he declares. And a long decade since his Cannes debut with Monsoon Shootout (2013). “I tried fitting in the same ensemble I’d worn all those years ago,” he gushes over his most recent visit to the celebrated film festival this year, where he wore an impeccable Gaurav Gupta suit. “But I’ve grown up! I don’t fit it.” In footage from 2013, where he articulates quite eloquently about the experimental caper that also starred Nawazuddin Siddiqui, he sports a wispy moustache and shoulder-length hair. He also looks a little incredulous, shifting nervously, the now-trademark glint of the eyes nowhere to be seen. Of this glossophobic nightmare, he has stated it was a dream come true. His acting career could do with more, he says.
He came into his own as a journeyman, putting to use the glowering menace of his impish face in roles more nuanced than an out-and-out Bollywood hero. “I’m captivated by Philip Seymour Hoffman.” Hoffman, with his voice a dulcet rumble, and his face a magnificent theatre orchestrated by his soul-baring eyes, was by all accounts a shapeshifter. At once sympathetic, kind and manipulative (in Doubt (2008), or The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)), he remains an icon for Varma, who adds, “The credo of maximising even the smallest of roles, imbuing them with your own self, total surrender… that is so affirming.” This devotion to craft also seeps into his own regimen. “I’m always asking my crew and the designers for clothing that I can wear more than once. In Shootout, I wore the same shirt throughout the length of the film. Same for my appearances in Mirzapur (2020) and Dahaad. In the upcoming Jaane Jaan, I don the same jacket in every single scene.” The appearance of lived ruggedness inspires these choices, he says, and emanates from the particular demands of storytelling, rather than urges edging towards method acting. He is taken aback by such suggestions of whimsy, and chuckles. One thinks about the fate that has befallen Jeremy Strong, infamous method actor, and nods with understanding.
“This role… as a cop,” he mulls it over, “was a ray of sunshine.” The film, produced by Netflix, and co-starring Kareena Kapoor Khan and Jaideep Ahlawat, is a moody thriller set in Kalimpong, West Bengal and adapted from the Japanese novel The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino. “Lately, I’m playing these dark, twisted roles with truly chilling overtures, and sometimes I feel a little overwrought. I grabbed this one with both hands.” The hot cop he’s playing has a storied passion for martial arts and trains vigorously. “A challenge! I’ve never done something like that. To channel the curated physicality of someone who goes to the gym because he gloats in the sweat and glory of the ordeal… required me to dedicate myself.” And commit to total surrender. “It has been a childhood dream to do some kung fu, brandish a karate chop—things like that.” He grins. “And now I get to do it!” Drenched in the pathos of motherhood and illuminated by the redoubtable flames of justice, the film follows filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh (who also made Kahaani (2012)) as he wheedles his oeuvre of grounded, gritty thrillers in a new direction. Some years ago, as a child, I walked up to a cop and asked him why all cops were so out of shape. Varma guffaws at this and asks if this was in Hyderabad, where I’m writing from and the city he grew up and ran away from to pursue a career in film. Now portraying a cop who follows in the tradition of muscly, brawny law enforcers such as John McClane in the Die Hard films, equipped with the tact and machismo of Vincent Hanna in Heat (1995), Varma is brimful, unabashed and totally in his element.
Martial arts is an endless muse for Varma, who also daydreams about the monochrome costuming flaunted by the likes of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. “An interesting parallel: Jackie Chan and Michael Jackson—the late pop star—dressed very similarly. Slick black finishes, the works.” Does he have any style icons? “Daniel Day-Lewis’s wardrobe feels like he has threaded a part of his life through it. Every outfit has an unmistakable stamp of his life, his friends, his family. A talisman, a memento. True storytelling.” Arranging his limbs in the rubrics of rising-star charisma, Varma reminds one of a young Johnny Depp. “A phenomenon. Such peculiar, personal charm.” Vijay also swears by the sartorial choices of Jim Carrey, especially in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), and those of Steve Jobs, Abbas-Mustan, and Christopher Nolan. “They redefine utilitarian fashion. Why waste time choosing? Their counsel is: repeat your outfits and let them become your signature.” Is he guilty of the purported crime of being an outfit-repeater? “I am—but lately it is no big deal. Nobody really cares.”
In many ways, Varma’s new role is a commingling of many childhood fixations that he now sees coming to fruition. An avid comic book collector, Varma was appalled when he discovered that his collection, which he had assembled with incredible care, had been sold to the local kabadiwala while he was training at FTII, Pune. “The publishers reached out to me and so, so generously offered me the entire set. Here,” he says, showing off his stack of Super Commando Dhruv and Nagraj volumes. “So cool,” he marvels. These characters, the apocryphal saviours of humanity, populated Varma’s dreams and raided his nightmares. With his new turn as a righteous, self-effacing cop, Varma surveys his childhood and stages something fascinating. He is what he always wanted to be.
Also read:
Kareena Kapoor Khan is slated to make her Netflix debut in Sujoy Ghosh's The Devotion of Suspect X
Darlings actor Vijay Varma takes Vogue through his lesser known sneaker obsession
