Vijay Varma, who has earned rave reviews for his performance as Hamza in Darlings, uncovered that he was frightened to play a negative person that would get a lot of hate from the audience. However, it was Shah Rukh Khan’s interest in playing the part that caused Vijay to gain more confidence in his decision.
In a new interaction with Film Companion, Vijay Varma revealed “I remember somebody from Red Chillies had told me that when Shah Rukh sir read the script, he was like ‘agar main young hota toh ye role main hi karta (If I was younger, I only would’ve done this role)’, which was interesting for me to hear. That was also one of the reasons I felt like I can do this role, because if Shah Rukh Khan thinks that he can do this role, being an absolute lover-boy, national sweetheart. I was scared to take up a role like this but I am very glad that it hit the nail in the right place.”
Vijay likewise talked about the worries he had about the impact of a role like Hamza on his career. He said, “When I walked out of the screening, I remember Alia was like ‘are you okay’ and I was really like ‘I think mera career khatam ho jaayega iske baad (I think my career will end after this).’ Because a performance that creates that kind of hate and dread is scary for an actor.
Darlings, which likewise featured Shefali Shah, Roshan Mathew, Rajesh Sharma, and Kiran Karmarkar among others, dropped on Netflix on August 5.