Vicky Kaushal plays Sanjay Dutt's friend, Kumar Gaurav in Sanju? The actor answers

By Ankita Bhalla

on June 06, 2018

Besides a gritty tale that needs to be told and Rajkumar Hirani's direction, Sanjay Dutt's biopic, Sanju, boasts of an ensemble star cast. The movie features Ranbir Kapoor stepping into the mighty shoes of a celebrated actor while actors Paresh Rawal and Manisha Koirala play his parents, Sunil Dutt and Nargis Dutt, respectively. While Sonam plays one of the superstar's love interest, Anushka is a journalist but it is still not clear as to what Vicky Kaushal essays in the forthcoming film.

Going by the trailer, he is Dutt's chaddi buddy and the two are thick as thieves for it is only this particular friend and Papa Dutt who stick by Sanju through all the lows in his life, as seen in the teaser clip.

Kick-starting promotional interviews for Sanju in the city, Vicky solved the mystery around his character in a group media interaction. Common assumptions are he portrays the Khalnayak actor's best friend and co-star, Kumar Gaurav. The looks in the trailer bear a striking resemblance too! However, Vicky reveals he will be seen as Sanjay's friend, Paresh.

"So, primarily I am playing this friend, Paresh, Who is from the States. And they have been friends since a long time, like since Rocky's times till today. And he is almost like a family. You know, they are like brothers more than friends. And there are also other anecdotes and incidents that happened with other of, other few of incidents so it's like an amalgamation, so it's a fictional character but who know Sanju, the people who know Sanju Sir, they know, when they watch the film they'll know I am playing Paresh. Primarily Paresh, but also because we had to name him differently and like I didn't know to follow somebody's body language or the way he talks or walks."

He further added, "So, because it's like an amalgamation of three or four of his friends so primarily Parya. That's what they call him, Parya."

Since the character is a Gujarati, the Masaan star did quite a lot of preparation on his dialect and tone. "Yeah, he is Gujju. He is a Gujarati. Yaar acha tha, naya tha mere liye. So, it's the first time I explored the language and Gujju see, it's such a sweet language na it's got this tendency ki aapne agar thoda bhi isko, aap indulge kar gaye na, it's got the tendency to go overboard and then it sounds caricaturish. You know both these languages, Gujarati and Punjabi also. Toh mujhe ye tha ki yaar kahi caricaturish na ho jaaye. I have to keep the right note. Toh Abhijat Joshi ji, he is the co-writer and creative writer of the film, he himself is Gujarati, so he helped a lot. And then there was Dimple Shah who does very good Gujarati theatre, so she helped me a lot with every line we used to set the diction right... ki kitna kaise bolna chahiye, jyada Gujarati na ho jaaye, kam bhi na ho jaaye,' said Vicky.

Adding more he replied, "And also because the film is spanning like over three decades. This character shuru shuru me he is gonna be very rustic way of like speaking you know bahot Gujarati hai then he starts living in the States and over like 20 years 30 years kitni Gujarati fade ho gayi kitna American ness aaega all that you have to incorporate you know toh wos ab bahot meticulously script pe baith baith ke baith baith ke kiya gaya hai. Toh, uspe mehnat hui then I went to Surat. 3-4 din ke liye chala gaya. I was like let me see the place, let me see the behaviour, body language. Harr state ka ek harr, because you know India is a place like this jahan, every 100 km you find a different language, a different culture. Toh let me just see ki kya hai. Waha pebhi mujhe bahot maza aaya, 3-4 din locals ke saath you know thoda bahot observe karke chup chup ke kuch kuch notes leke. It was good. It was a nice trip."

Need we mention we are eagerly looking forward to witness Vicky's magic as Ranbir's best friend on the silver screen? This man enjoys a reputation for stealing the thunder. Notably, Vicky's last release Raazi, featured him opposite Alia Bhatt who is Ranbir's new 'girlfriend'.