Kohrra breakout star Suvinder Vicky says ‘success has no age’ as he looks back at his two-decade long struggle: ‘This is what stardom feels like?’

Away from the chaos of Mumbai, the actor is keeping a tab of all the love coming his way, even as his fingers are paining typing countless thank you texts and his heart feeling a bit “anxious” processing how “stardom” feels like, something that eluded him for twenty years despite acclaimed work to his credit.

Watch a conversation between Kohrra co-creator Sudip Sharma and director Abhishek Chaubey here:

“People would ask me, ‘Paaji why don’t you buy a blue tick for Instagram?’ And I didn’t know you had to buy it! I would tell them if I get enough recognition for Instagram to realise that I am an actor, maybe they will give me. I had applied several times, submitted my Aadhar card, but ab nahi de rahe toh main kya karu?!” the actor laughs.

In an interview with indianexpressonline, Suvinder Vicky opens up about the love he is receiving for Kohrra, the slow and steady rise of his career, and the day when the Mumbai-based crew of the Netflix show didn’t realise that he was the main lead and instead addressed him as “chacha“.

Edited excerpts:

 

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There is just endless love coming your way for Kohrra, how does it feel?

It feels really good, I am enjoying it. The series is trending on number one and who doesn’t like that? I didn’t expect it to breakout this way. When I was working, I did feel the work I was doing was sincere, but Sudip (Sharma, co-creator) and Randeep (Jha, director) had an idea and would keep telling me, paaji ho jayega, ye bohot achcha hai but I wasn’t sure so would ask them if I should try harder! But they were very clear about what they wanted and what they had. But of course, I didn’t anticipate this level of love, that Karan Johar would write about it, Anurag Kashyap would talk about it, Hansal Mehta would call me… I just never imagined.

Karan Johar said you are the revelation of 2023 and that your silences can launch a million scripts…

It is truly heartening. Ek aam actor ki nazar se aap dekho iska importance. I don’t have any godfather here, and it isn’t even that I have been in Bollywood for decades. Sure, I have been on and off to Mumbai for work, but not for long. I was fortunate that I kept getting work from Chandigarh, got some offers from Bollywood. So this is pretty huge for me. That the people you dream of working with are praising you. Every actor dreams of working with these filmmakers.

 

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You have been working in the industry for close to 25 years now. That must have been a challenging journey.

I had finished my masters in theatre from Punjab University, Patiala in 1997 and in the next two years, I started getting some work. See, when you do a professional study in theatre, you dream of coming to Mumbai to become an actor. The question that you constantly ask yourself is, ‘For how long can I do theatre?’ because it can’t run my kitchen. I used to do theatre workshops in schools and colleges and knew since then that I just want to be an actor. To even think of another dream other than that of acting would give me anxiety. I would get small roles here and there and would constantly wait for the big part. I would wonder if I can ever even reach Mumbai? Even the thought of struggling there would make me sweat profusely. But God has been kind, when I see how the journey has panned out.

After your masters, did you come to Mumbai and struggled?

No, I don’t think I was ever there for complete one year. It was always off and on for me. When Hindi films come to Punjab to shoot, they cast Punjabi actors. Like for example in Kohrra, 90 percent of the actors are from Punjab. From important characters to a small appearance, they are from Punjab theatre groups. I got Udta Punjab’s character of Kukku the same way, when they came to shoot here. Mukesh Chhabra has known me for a long time, even before Bhaag Milkha Bhaag happened, I think since Hansal Mehta’s Shahid. I had shot the film with him, and I still have fond memories with Rajkummar Rao, who was then yet to become the star he is today, and we had traveled in a bus!

I will tell you a funny story from the sets of Kohrra. The opening sequence, when the cops discover the body, that was my first shot. Now, I had met Sudip, Randeep, done workshops with co-actors, but of course I hadn’t met the light man, the focus puller or the assistant cameraman and so on– and the entire unit was from Mumbai. Of course, they don’t know who is playing the main lead, not everyone has access to the script. So the light man was fixing the shot and I was standing, in that get-up. During the close-up shot, I was standing there and I hear a voice, ‘Aey chacha zara aage aao na (Hey uncle, step forward a bit)!’ I turned around and no one was behind me and so I realised he called me chacha because I had white beard, was wearing a turban! I think after 10 days he would have realised that this chacha is acting with everyone and is the main lead! So yes, the struggle is still on (laughs).

Did you ever feel that your choices were good–Meel Patthar, Chauthi Koot, Netflix’s CAT–but somewhere fame kept eluding you?

Some actors sometimes never even witness this popularity. Mujhe ab anxiety honi shuru hoti hai, ki stardom isko bolte hai, itne calls aa rahe hai, interviews ho rahe hai (I feel anxious that this is what stardom means, I have been receing calls, giving media interviews). My Instagram DM is now full! Before the release, it was all quiet. How the graph of share market rises, that has been the way with my follower count! I was so tired replying to people, I handed my phone and asked my daughter to send some texts, people are writing such wonderful things, as a mark of gratitude I can at least fold my hands and send them a smiley! She told me, ‘Papa aapke followers toh tha-tha kar ke badte he jaa rahe hai (your followers are increasong exponentially)’.

People would often ask me, ‘Paaji why don’t you buy a blue tick for Instagram?’ And I didn’t know you had to buy. I would tell them if I get enough recognition for Instagram to realise that I am an actor, maybe they will give me. I had applied several times, submitted my Aadhar card, but ab nahi de rahe toh main kya karu?! I am focusing on my work. In fact, I was just reading a comment, someone tagged Instagram and wrote that as a token of love at least now I should get it! So all of this really feels good (laughs).

 

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What was your understanding of Balbir when the show came your way?

I had gone from Amritsar to Mumbai to meet Sudip in his office when he had called me. There, I saw the storyboard– for the first time in my life. He said I was the only person he had in mind as the show was yet to be cast. I said there is no way I am going to refuse, an actor waits for an opportunity like this. I met him and returned, but when I didn’t get any call back for more than a week, I also started feeling if the project slipped out of my hands.

But yes, once the script came to me, I realised it was so wonderfully detailed. There were two-line dialogues and more than half a page of just description. It was difficult for me to read that. In the first few readings…. Because Hindi is written in Roman English, and I am not that fluent with the language, it was a bit difficult for me. So what I would do is, leave the description, but then the dialogues wouldn’t make sense, it wasn’t fun. Then slowly I made it a point to start reading it and realised that this is the real script! Then I started marking things, what can happen where. I did work on that.

The love coming your way also feels sweet for it’s a reminder that age is not a roadblock for success, you don’t have to be young to be popular.

See every actor who comes here does dream to become a ‘hero’. But that happens when you are not at a mature age. I had realised this quite early, when I would do theatres, where I was taught the works of Shyam Benegal, Om Puri, Naseer sahab (Naseeruddin Shah), whenever someone would come from NSD, would talk about Tughlaq, Ebrahim Alkazi, Barry John, Raj Babbar who was from Patiala…. So our mindset was that we have to be an ‘actor’, the thought of wanting to be a ‘hero’ was long gone.

At age 28, I just wanted to search for good characters to play. So I started with one scene parts, then two, then some projects where I had ten scenes and so on. In fact during Chauthi Koot, I understood what a ‘protagonist’ and ‘antagonist’ is! I was like, achcha ye bhi hota hai?! I simply wanted to keep working. Kamiyaabi ki koi umar nahi hoti (Success has no age). Naseer sir has been at it for decades, when Irrfan was alive, he proved this, Piyush Mishra is doing it, now Manoj Bajpayee is proving it. So yes, success has no age.