Vijay Varma on shedding his ‘negative’ image in Gustaakh Ishq: “Wanted to get rid of the word ‘hate’”

Mumbai, Nov 25 (IANS) Actor Vijay Varma has, over time, proved himself as an actor par excellence. The actor who ventured into Bollywood with a negative character continued to stick to the genre consciously.

The actor is now all set to break through his negative on-screen image and step into the world of old-school romance as a lover boy in Manish Malhotra’s produced Gustaakh Ishq.

Talking to IANS, while in a candid tête-à-tête with IANS, the actor spoke about consciously breaking his image as an antagonist and stepping into the world of love and romance. “It was a break that I wanted from the negative parts because they tend to weigh down on you,” said Vijay while talking to IANS. “I was constantly told by fans, ‘We hated you in that film; we hated you, but you are a brilliant actor.’” So I wanted to get rid of the word “hate” and call it something else. So be it IC-814 or Jaane Jaane or Murder Mubarak or anything else; I just wanted to take a break from that.”

Talking about Gustaakh Ishq, Vijay said, “It is a sweet, romantic film. It has love, it has worship, it has sin, it has worship! There are a lot of things in it that were there for me to explore as an actor.” The actor further elaborated on making a conscious shift from portraying negative characters to soft positive ones. “Anything that you do new tends to take a bit of time to adjust to, and it can be difficult. I remember when I was in “Pink”, it was a very dangerously written scene and was a very gruesome scene in the car.

Here, in Gustaakh Ishq, I would say that the challenge was to pull off such poetic dialogues and to stand in front of THE Naseeruddin Shah, the legend, and to not shiver, yet manage to be believable, and to convey all the emotions correctly. It was a new challenge!’ Varma further said, “Whenever you switch or change yourself, it can be a bit challenging. But it’s fun. And then you keep doing it for a while, and then you feel like doing something new. So my next step will be to try to go towards comedy.”

Talking about Gustaakh Ishq, the movie is based in the retro era of Delhi and exudes the charm and romance of Old Delhi. Known for his intense, layered, and often unpredictable characters, Vijay’s transformation into a soft-spoken lover in Gustaakh Ishq has taken everyone by surprise. The movie, along with Vijay, also stars Naseeruddin Shah and Fatima Sana Sheikh.

Gustaakh Ishq is produced under Manish Malhotra’s new production banner known as Stage5 Production.

Set in the bylanes of Purani Dilli (Old Delhi) and the fading kothis (vintage houses) of Punjab, “Gustaakh Ishq” is a love story of passion and unspoken desire, drawing from a world where architecture holds memory and music carries longing.

–IANS rd/