Bollywood. The harbour for dreams, for aspirations, for inspirations, for surrealism, for manifestation and for a thirst that never really can be quenched. You go, spotlights go. You speak, headlines gamble. One of India’s "prolific industry", as the country’s impressive of the highest order export, Priyanka Chopra, likes to put it, enjoys a reputation for its make or break game. Millions of feet falling in, only a handful pairs never return. And as goes the common notion, if your father is a director/producer/actor or knows anybody in the world of showbiz, everything you do from thereon is a by-product of nepotism. But guess sometimes, just sometimes, apple does fall far from the tree. Perhaps, Vicky Kaushal is one such rare apple.
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Born to renowned action director Sham Kaushal, Vicky was never Bollywood’s ‘It’ boy in waiting. His father had the crème de la crème of Indian cinema on his speed dial, but all he ever did was perhaps provide his son with just phone numbers. Nipped off the entire debate in the bud, we’d say! With absolutely no recommendations and an engineering degree from Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, Vicky set out to become the ‘hero’ of his own story as he set his own foot on the paddle of his life’s narrative.
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Vicky was not the quintessential - fair or dimpled or masculine – good looking man a director would fancy. Arguably why Kaushal started out by assisting filmmaker Anurag Kashyap in one of his career best Gangs of Wasseypur and played a small gamble with minor roles in his later productions. A lean, tall, dark and handsome Vicky then made his debut as a lead actor in Masaan in 2015. As much as we’d like to mention that the industry has comfortably forgotten how much it owes Kashyap and Phantom Films for the gift of Kaushal, it is a fact rather well-documented that Vicky hasn’t looked back ever since he played Deepak.
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But the break was nowhere close until Raman Raghav 2.0 happened. “Poignant and memorable,” as one of the reviews of the film starring Vicky as a drug-addict police officer stated then. Truer words, folks, truer words.
Don’t blame yourself for mistaking Vicky as the young, maybe less experienced Rajkummar Rao but give it to him for the spark, for the innocent eyes that belittle the dialogues occasionally and for the shy smiles he uses as a beauty bullet because oh boy, don’t they cast a wisp of magic? And just when we thought we were done glistening at his artsy face, he shed out of his lean body faster than a snake out of its skin. In case you have skipped 2017, we bet you did ogle at his drool-worthy, washboard, rock-hard, chiselled, sculpted to perfection or whatever adjective a dictionary can possibly come close to those abs. THOSE ABS!
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Cut to 2018, Vicky is all over Bollywood, in the air they breathe, the ground they walk on flaunting their achievements and the very covers they turn to for a taste of glamour. His days of fits and starts are beyond over. Romcom? Love Per Square Foot. Spy thriller? Raazi. Anthology? Lust Stories. Biopic? Sanju. Lover boy? Manmarziyaan. You name it! Because we’d be doing the happy dance here as we slyly slip into your curious minds that all these movies that released in 2018 had one common vein – Vicky Kaushal. And didn’t he steal the show in them all? Talk critic or commercial, he’s got it under his belt. He’s got it all.
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They called it an irony, we call it strategy. Son of a stunt director didn’t even slap anyone in a film yet, was the joke in Vicky’s house shared the actor once. It’s a chip off the old block, hold the laughter and your breath until Uri. And if more needed, Vicky is also doing a big-banner, big-budget multi-drama with Karan Johar, Takht.
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Rawness and vulnerability, is what this dragon breathes. A talent so pure you can’t tell his craft and personality apart, humbleness that bends every power around him and a heart that just makes every girl melt at the drop of a hat – that, is Vicky Kaushal for you. He's got everything right which we hope never goes wrong. The new wonder boy of Bollywood. The new ‘IT.’
