Vijay Varma recalls casting couch experience: ‘Model coordinator was getting touchy-feely’

‘Model coordinator misbehaved with me’

Speaking to Prakhar Gupta on his YouTube channel, Vijay said, “I tried modelling in Hyderabad, just small-time, amateur-level work. But I came across this weird model coordinator. He started to misbehave with me a little bit, like just trying to get a little touchy-feely. I said, ‘Bro, what is this? What are you doing?’ So I got discouraged immediately. You get discouraged very quickly when you’re still inexperienced. Then I thought, I think I should address it head-on. If acting is what I want to do, then I have to do it.”

The road to acting, however, proved no easier.  “So I went to a theatre school in Hyderabad called Sutradhar School of Acting. I told them, ‘I want to learn acting.’ But they turned me away. They said, ‘It requires commitment, it requires dedication. This isn’t something you’ll do for two days and then leave.’ I thought, they’re not even giving me a chance.”

Vijay Varma got rejected by FTII

He added, “Then I applied to FTII. I found out they had a two-year acting course. I applied, made it to the final round, and got rejected. And for the first time, I realised that your dreams aren’t entirely in your hands. It’s not like you want something and you automatically get it. You don’t.”

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Reflecting on the lesson those setbacks taught him, Vijay added, “When you’re growing up, you’re entitled in a way. Your parents are there, your family is there, everything is taken care of. You get what you want. Eventually, you get what you want. But then you realize that in the outside world, it’s not easy to get what you want, whether it’s getting a seat in a college or getting to do what you feel like doing.”

Vijay eventually returned to FTII, where he was finally accepted into its acting programme. At the institute, he studied alongside future actors Rajkummar Rao and Jaideep Ahlawat.

He was last seen in the web series Matka King.

DISCLAIMER: This article contains personal reflections on early career challenges, rejection, and sensitive workplace experiences shared in an interview context. The narrative represents individual recollections and is presented solely for informational and editorial purposes.