Vijay Varma recalls casting couch experience during his days of struggle: ‘He got a little touchy-feely’

Actor Vijay Varma reflects on his difficult journey in the Hindi film industry, detailing uncomfortable early experiences in modelling.

From Gully Boy and Dahaad to Darlings, Vijay Varma has built a reputation for delivering powerful performances, one project after another. However, the actor's journey to success in the Hindi film industry was far from easy. In a recent interaction, Vijay opened up about experiencing the casting couch when he briefly tried his hand at modelling during the early days of his struggle.

Vijay Varma opens up on facing casting couch. (Photo: Instagram)

'He started to misbehave with me'

Speaking to Prakhar Gupta on his YouTube channel, Vijay recalled the time he was made to feel uncomfortable by a modelling coordinator. He said, “I tried modelling in Hyderabad, just small-time, amateur-level work. But I came across this weird model coordinator. He started to misbehave with me a little bit, like just trying to get a little touchy-feely. I said, ‘Bro, what is this? What are you doing?’ So I got discouraged immediately. You get discouraged very quickly when you’re still inexperienced. Then I thought, I think I should address it head-on. If acting is what I want to do, then I have to do it.”

'Got rejected by FTII'

Discouraged by his first experience in the modelling industry, Vijay decided to pursue acting. However, the road remained challenging, as he was initially rejected by a theatre school in Hyderabad. He said, “So I went to a theatre school in Hyderabad called Sutradhar School of Acting. I told them, ‘I want to learn acting.’ But they turned me away. They said, ‘It requires commitment, it requires dedication. This isn’t something you’ll do for two days and then leave.’ I thought, they’re not even giving me a chance.”

Vijay then applied to the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), but faced rejection there as well. It was only on his second attempt that he secured admission to the institute, where he went on to study acting alongside actors such as Rajkummar Rao and Jaideep Ahlawat.

Vijay Varma's films

On the work front, Vijay Varma was last seen in Vibhu Puri's directorial Gustaakh Ishq. The film also starred Naseeruddin Shah, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sharib Hashmi, and marked fashion designer Manish Malhotra's debut as a film producer.

Most recently, Vijay was seen in the web series Matka King, which traces the transformation of a humble and enterprising cotton trader into a powerful gambling don as he creates a new gambling game called Matka.