hi INDiA Copyright 2022-2050
‘I Was Rejected In 1,000 Auditions’, Vicky Kaushal Recalls His Struggling Days In Bollywood
Bollywood actor Vicky Kaushal has been one actor who really has had an upward trajectory unlike any other actor with the credit clearly going to his raw talent and physical presence that he brings to the screen. The 33-year-old actor landed his first leading role in the independent drama film Masaan back in 2015.
© Disney+ Hotstar
The film earned him many accolades with the IIFA award and the Screen Awards being a few of them.
Well, Vicky really hasn’t looked back since and followed it up with power-packed performances in Raazi, Sanju, and Uri: The Surgical Strike, the film that finally got him the National Film Award for Best Actor. Well, with some really big commercial hits under his belt, it would really seem like Vicky has had a smooth ride due to the fact that he is the son of action director Sham Kaushal.
© BCCL
However, the actor says that it has really been anything but that. Vicky, while speaking to Zoom TV, said that like every other actor in India, he too, had to battle with hundreds and thousands of people in order to prove his mettle.
“When you start giving auditions, aapko pata chalta hai ki aap kitne paani mein ho (you realize where you stand). Because you are competing with hundreds and thousands of people who want the same job,” he said.
The actor also opened up on the insecurities faced during his struggling days. “You go and stand in queues with hundreds of other actors. And actors who are very good actors and you’re sitting in rooms with some people who are doing a far better job than you…Sometimes, it kind of takes a toll on you and it really accentuates your insecurities and inferiorities. Then you have to keep surpassing that every day of your life till you get that job, you do good in that and then your confidence starts building up.” he added.
© Prime Video
Vicky also spoke on how despite the tremendous competition for places, he really did not have a ‘safety net’ or a ‘plan B’. “What people don’t realize is that if I’ve cracked 10 auditions, I’ve actually failed in 1,000 auditions. I got rejected in a thousand auditions but I got selected in 10 but what is visible is only the 10 opportunities that I got, and sabko lagta hai ki arey yeh toh aasani se mil gaya (everyone thinks ‘he got it easily’)…I had no option… I knew I don’t have any safety net and if I fall from here, it’s straight on the ground because I have nothing in the pedal. So having no plan B also gives you a lot of strength,” he said.
Vicky’s latest project is the biopic Sardar Udham where he plays Sardar Udham Singh, the freedom fighter who assassinated former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab in British India Michael O’Dwyer in 1940.
Singh had carried out the assassination to avenge the brutal killings of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre back in 1919.