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Vijay Varma says Bollywood boxed him as 'friend giving high five to hero', sat idle with no work after going to Cannes

Vijay Varma recalled his early years as an actor before Gully Boy's success made him popular and in demand.

Updated on: Apr 11, 2026, 11:27:19 IST
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Vijay Varma found success belatedly in his career. The actor, who once flew on a charter plane with Amitabh Bachchan, endured periods of no work before Gully Boy changed everything for him. In a new interview, the actor recalled those days of struggle.

Vijay Varma on sitting idle after going to Cannes

Vijay Varma is gearing up for the release of his new show, Matka King.
Vijay Varma is gearing up for the release of his new show, Matka King.

Vijay is currently awaiting the release of his Prime Video series, Matka King. During the promotions, he spoke to news agency PTI, recalling how he sat idle even after doing a film that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. “The first festival that I went to was Cannes with my film Monsoon Shootout, before anything had been released. I could not have done a bigger dhamaka (blast) than this, but after this, I was sitting idle for many years,” Vijay said.

A Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) graduate, Vijay appeared in small roles in Pink, Raag Desh, Manto, and Middle Class Abbayi, before he got his break with a small but talked-about role in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy. However, even the success saw him fighting typecast.

‘I'm bigger than this’

Over the last few years, Vijay has earned acclaim for his work in films and shows such as Darlings, Dahaad, and Mirzapur. He will now play a gambling boss in Matka King, a show inspired by real life

Matka King also features Kritika Kamra, Gulshan Grover, Sai Tamhankar, Siddharth Jadhav, Girish Kulkarni, and Jamie Lever. The series is produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur, Nagraj Popatrao Manjule, Gargi Kulkarni, Ashwini Sidwani, and Ashish Aryan, under the banners of Roy Kapur Films, Aatpat, and SMR Productions. The show releases on Amazon Prime Video on April 17.

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhimanyu Mathur

Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.

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