INTERVIEW : "I Had To Keep A Certain Thin Balance In My Character Of Darlings" - Vijay Varma

Vijay Varma has been paired with Alia Bhatt in Netflix's upcoming flick, Darlings. The trailer shows an unhappy marriage between these two, while some scenes show violence as well. But there are no spoilers yet. Catching up with Vijay Varma in a media interaction has helped us a bit. So let's read what he has to say.Sharing the journey of how he got on board for Darlings, Vijay Varma recalled, "I got a call from Alia. She said, there's a script. Read it. I read the script. And I found it very powerful. There was something in the script that was talking to me. There were many radical ideas in the script. But I wasn't sure how to play the role. So I met the director and had a couple of meetings. It was April 2020, during the lockdown. In the first long term, she explained to me the tone of the film on the zoom call. I found the narration and her ideas very interesting.""The second challenge was to play the role. I had many long conversations with director Jasmeet on this. The guy I play in Darlings is from Byculla. He loves his wife; she loves him; but there is something in their marriage that isn't working. Then there is his mother-in-law. So I had to explore all the dynamics. When the lockdown opened, we went to Byculla and met people. I wanted to add a new flavour to the tone of the character," he added.

The trailer has kept Vijay's character under wraps. Not many dialogues have made it difficult. Vijay throws a light on it: "I think the trailer has revealed enough about my character if you see it closely. Shamshu and Badru have a difficult marriage, and alcoholism is involved. Some kind of power play is involved; violence is involved; some love is involved. Rest, as you can see in the trailer, and other things will be revealed on August 5th."When asked about the comparison between the characters of Mirzapur and Darlings, Vijay smiled and answered, "I think this one from Darlings was an interesting challenge. Because I had to keep a certain thin balance. When you watch the film, you'll realise if this balance wasn't right, then either the relationship wouldn't work, the character wouldn't work, or the message of the film wouldn't work. So I have tried to walk on that thin line and everybody has helped me with that."Darlings is directed by debutant Jasmeet K. Reen and is produced by Gauri Khan, Alia Bhatt, and Gaurav Verma under the banner of Red Chillies Entertainment and Eternal Sunshine Productions. Starring Alia Bhatt, Shefali Shah, Vijay Varma, and Roshan Mathew in lead roles, Darlings is set to stream on Netflix on August 5, 2022.