On January 11 this year, as the celluloid ode to the surgical strike performed by the Indian army on Pakistani launchpads in response to the attack on Uri, a town in Jammu & Kashmir on September 18, 2016, hit the screens, box-office played witness to the havoc that was caused due to the enormous earnings of the film. Titled Uri: The Surgical Strike, the project changed the fate of every person associated and especially proved to be a game-changer for Vicky Kaushal who led the film. The actor, who had garnered recognition with ventures like Sanju and Raazi, became the heartthrob of the nation overnight and climbed up the list of every filmmakers' bucket list. An engineer by profession, the 31-year-old actor resorted to acting and we can't thank him enough. Now, as the year is inching to a closure, Vicky, who has had a wonderful 12 months that comprised of winning a National Award and bagging plum projects, spoke to a leading daily about his newly found success. In the interview, the Masaan star revealed that a decade ago, he didn't imagine himself in the position of a 'hero' as he believed that he doesn't have the face of one.
“Ten or eleven years back, when I was in college, I decided that I don’t want to be an engineer. I thought I didn’t have the face of a hero. Back then, there were no actors. We only had heroes. The general notion was that only those with a chocolate boy image could become a hero. And I used to be a lanky boy. The times have thankfully changed. There’s no definition of a hero anymore. It’s more to do with talent. There’s a surge in terms of scripts being written and the actors who are coming on board. Now there’s no such thing as the face of a hero. Films, today, can make an actor a hero. It’s important for a film to be a hero,” Vicky told.
Speaking about witnessing a great year, Vicky told apart from the box-office figures of Uri, the love he received from the audience was much more valuable. “This has been a year like no other. It has been so beautiful. The response that Uri received was incredible. More than the box office figures, it’s about the love that I got from the audience, the way the film resonated with them and how they made it their own. That’s a wonderful feeling for the actor in me,” Vicky gushed.
Talking about receiving his first National Award, Vicky said getting it early in his career is a blessing and it came across as a beautiful surprise to him. “That was special. And then winning the National Award was a beautiful surprise for me, my family and the team. Every actor hopes to get a National Award, but for it to come to me so early on in my career is a true blessing,” the 31-year-old actor added.
“I’ve already finished shooting for a major chunk of Shoojit Sircar’s Sardar Udham Singh. I had signed Takht and Meghna Gulzar’s film on Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw and we start shooting next year. It has been a year of gratitude and I’m humbled,” concluded Vicky while discussing his upcoming lineup of interesting projects.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
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