‘I cried in front of 100 people’: Vikrant Massey recalls being shouted at by director, says he felt humiliated

The actor said he was raw and untrained when he faced the camera, simply attracted by the promise of the fee that could help him pay for education. “I still remember the date, it was December 19, 2024. Prior to that, I was working as a barista. I did that job because I had to support my own education. I am not going to get into that sob story or my struggle. I used to also work as an assistant instructor in Shiamak Davar’s troupe and at a restaurant in Mumbai,” Vikrant recalled.

ALSO READ | Vikrant Massey recalls working 16-hour days, balancing two jobs at 16, ‘survived on Parle-G and water’

However, his experience of facing the camera was not memorable. “It was at a studio at the Madh Island where I now reside. I was 16 and facing the camera for the first time. I was horrible at what I was doing and the director was a very experienced film director of that time. Earlier, people would get film directors to set up your show because they would have more money at the beginning. I was so bad. I remember very, very clearly my director yelled at me and I started crying. I was so naive. I was mouthing my lines and he was not happy with the way I was doing it, of course. He lost his patience and yelled at me on the mic. He got personal. He said a few things… I remember me breaking down. I started crying because I felt so humiliated,” Vikrant said.

 

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The producer of the show, who had offered her the role, tried to calm down the teenager. “The producer of the show came to me and I just said one thing to her, ‘yaar sabke samne aisa kyu bola?’ And that was it. I took it on the chin. That’s always been my nature, I am always willing to learn, always wanting to sort of unlearn as well at the same time. And I’m glad that experience happened.”

He said the filmmaker later came and apologised to him. “He was generous enough. That very evening, he came up to me and he said, ‘I’m really sorry and I shouldn’t have spoken to you that way.’ But that one moment, the first day of shoot, you’re yelled at in front of 100 people… I tend to forgive, but I don’t forget.”

He, however, said he doesn’t hold it against the director. “The experience was not severe enough for me to sort of want a payback for it. There have been certain experiences that I have held very close to my heart, especially with many casting directors when I was breaking through from television to movies. And unfortunately, there was this preconceived notion about television actors not being good at what they do. That they’re not good actors. And there was this disparity between film actors and TV actors. So there were a few people, like producers and casting directors who very openly told me that you know that you’re a TV actor and we’ll never work with you because you’re a TV actor.”

 

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Vikrant named multiple talented people who transitioned from TV and have made cinema better by being a part of it. “Some of the finest actors you see now, especially in the last 10 years, are TV actors, whether it is Yami Gautam or Mrunal Thakur. Aryan Khan stole the show making Ba***ds of Bollywood. Directors such as Anurag Basu, Anurag Kashyap, they’ve worked in television.”