From an uncertain outsider to one of India’s most compelling screen performers, Vijay Varma speaks about his struggle, artistic freedom and the price of following a dream.
When Vijay Varma appeared in the short film ‘Shor’ in 2008, he was still a student at the Film and Television Institute of India. Eighteen years later, the actor has certainly made enough “Shor” for audiences far beyond Bollywood to take notice.
Speaking with G’day India during the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2026, Varma reflected on a career shaped not by overnight success, but by persistence, difficult choices and a refusal to repeat himself.
“I don’t know whether I’ve made enough ‘Shor’,” he joked, “but I’ve made enough noise for people to at least whisper good things about me.”
Varma believes the growing international appetite for Indian cinema has allowed more diverse stories to travel. While traditional song-and-dance Bollywood has long enjoyed global recognition, he says audiences are now embracing Indian films and series that are intimate, realistic and distinctive.
With acclaimed performances across cinema and streaming, Varma has found himself at the forefront of that change. Yet success has not diminished his curiosity.
“As I grow older, I feel there are more possibilities within me,” he said. “I’ve lived a little more and learned more about people, places and relationships. I understand art better now than I did as a young adult.”
His journey into the film industry was anything but conventional. Born into a Marwari family, Varma was expected to remain at home and join the family business. Leaving to pursue acting meant breaking a pattern followed for generations.
For Varma, the biggest sacrifice has been living away from his family. Following his dream meant missing important family celebrations and not always having his loved ones beside him during major moments in his own life. It is a difficult but unavoidable price he has paid for his career.
The early years brought long periods without substantial work or recognition. One of his hardest lessons came through Monsoon Shootout, in which he played the lead. The film remained unreleased for several years, while Varma turned down other opportunities in anticipation of its arrival.
“Don’t wait for one thing to work. Keep moving,” he said. Even a project that does not transform an actor’s life, he explained, can provide another month of survival or become a stepping stone towards something greater.
Today, success has given Varma the freedom to be selective. He does not see fearlessness as accepting everything that comes his way, but as choosing without the anxiety that refusing one role could end his career.
He is equally determined to avoid being stereotyped. “I want to have fun while shooting something,” he said. “I don’t want to do something I’ve already done before.”
Varma described an actor through a striking observation once shared by his friend and fellow FTII alumnus Jaideep Ahlawat: an actor is like a prism. The actor does not create the light; the light touches them and emerges in many colours. Their task is simply to remain clear and correctly positioned.
Among those who illuminated his own artistic path, Varma named the late Irrfan Khan as his greatest inspiration.
“We’ve never had anybody like him,” he said. “He walked so that all of us could walk too.”
Australia, meanwhile, first entered Varma’s imagination through cricket and cinema. He grew up watching matches from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, but it was Dil Chahta Hai—released during his teenage years—that gave him another memorable glimpse of the country.
In Melbourne, Vijay Varma won the Best Performance (Male) – Series award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) 2026 for his role in Matka King.
Varma stood as proof that the outsider can not only enter the frame but transform it—quietly, patiently and in colours entirely his own.
Tonee Sethi
