Vicky Kaushal is receiving rave reviews for his latest release Sardar Udham (directed by Shoojit Sircar). Critics have even let go of the minor issues they may have had with the film, all thanks to Kaushal’s brilliant performance. History has it that Vicky is one of the rare artists in Bollywood who has impressed both critics and audiences. In an exclusive chat with Asian Voice, Vicky reacted if this achievement puts him under any kind of pressure. Vicky said, “Does it pressurise me? No. My focus is too much on just doing my job. That's what I tend to do. But it feels good that you saying that."
Amid the reopening of theatres with full capacity in Mumbai after 18 months of the pandemic, most A-list actors like Vicky have been extensively sharing the promo of Rohit Shetty’s Sooryvanshi, which stars Ranveer Singh, Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar along with Katrina Kaif.
Speaking about it, Vicky said, “I feel the romance of theatre is not going to die anytime. You know people are also we're also living in a time where people are craving for a sense of normalcy to come back into their lives. Of course, now the propositions have changed a lot because the spending power of people might have changed or many other economical things to look at, which are very subjective things. But I feel, it's a great thing that theatres are going to be resuming and everybody is going to come back to the theatres.
“What’s great that has happened is that people have really developed this friendship with OTT where they've understood the importance of getting to watch something according to their own convenience at their home with their family friends alone. So I think we have exciting times ahead where the films in theatres are never going to die at that’s always going to be there but along with that, there is another you know significant medium that is there for us where it's completely of you know, our choice to choose our mode of entertainment.”
Vicky’s film Sardar Udham is based on the life of Sardar Udham Singh a revolutionary freedom fighter best known for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer in London to take revenge for the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar. Speaking to the newsweekly, Vicky explained a scene where he screams “Koi Zinda Hai?” (Is somebody alive?) which is coincidently synonymous to a point in the pandemic, when almost everyone lost at least one significant person from their life to Covid.
Vicky said, “When we were shooting the film and this scene was being shot, it was more related to the Jallianwala Bagh episode. It just shows you or makes you feel that it was like a bloodbath, It was a horrific incident where it boiled down to just people wanting to know if there's anybody alive.”
Correlating that scene to the present times, he said, “The first wave and then the second wave was absolutely shattering for everyone. I think everybody knew with a one-degree separation of somebody who was going through a loss or a really terrible time. So I'm glad that we are kind of in some way over that wave and we're kind of heading towards normalcy but in terms of the context now that you said, I also never thought of relating it to the times that we're living in.”
Lastly, he spoke about the responsibility that comes with working on a film based on history, that too with little research material to pursue. Vicky said, “You have to be absolutely sincere. Whatever liberty you're taking, whatever imagination is at play, has to be that dire. You can't go beyond that. So of course, there's a responsibility and that responsibility makes it more challenging.”
