Aanand L Rai says he was concerned for ‘optimistic’ Vikrant Massey before 12th Fail’s theatrical release: ‘I didn’t want him to be heartbroken’

Vikrant Massey started working in television in 2007, but it wasn’t until 2023 that he actually got the acceptance of the masses with Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail. Even while filming for 12th Fail, Vikrant was quite confident about the film’s success, and in a recent interview, filmmaker Aanand L Rai recalled the conversations that he had with him during that time. He admitted that he was actually concerned for Vikrant, as films even big-budget action films weren’t doing well at the box office, let alone mid-budget character dramas.

In a chat with Bollywood Hungama, Aanand L Rai, who is one of the producers of Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba, called Vikrant an “important actor,” and said that the reason behind this is Vikrant’s love for cinema. Aanand then recalled how thrilled Vikrant was about 12th Fail, and shared, “I remember quite well that during Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba, he was shooting for 12th Fail, and he spoke about it with such love, conviction. He kept saying that this is going to be a great film. I just kept thinking that he is such an optimistic actor, because it wasn’t a big film. At that time, we were going through that phase where we thought that the audience is not coming to the theatre and we were talking about the future of cinema, that audiences only want to watch spectacle on the big screen. How will his work out?”

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Aanand said that when Vikrant told him about the theatrical release of 12th Fail, Aanand was actually concerned for him. “Vikrant was telling me that 12th Fail was a theatrical release and I was feeling bad for him. I didn’t want him to be heartbroken, but he had his own conviction, and he won in the end,” he said. Praising director Vidhu Vinod Chopra, he added, “He had faith in himself, in the maker, and this combination is rare.”

Vikrant was recently see in the Netflix release Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba. He will next be seen in The Sabarmati Report.