EXCLUSIVE: Vardhan Puri Reveals His Grandfather Amrish Puri Had Refused To Make Him Part Of This Film!

Vardhan Puri is the scion of the famous Puri family of Bollywood. With a huge legacy that has been passed on to the new face on the Bollywood block, he surely has a huge responsibility to bear. The responsibility of living up to his grandfather’s heritage. The one and the only one Amrish Puri. It has just been a week since his first film as a debutant (of which he was a co-writer) as well Yeh Saali Aashiqui released. More than anything else, the newbie, got an immense response for the skills he displayed on the celluloid. It was not your traditional Bollywood newcomer film that is replete with just fun frolic and flings; it was a story of a warped-up liaison between two complicated individuals - a very unexpected kind of cinema that was to be the launchpad of a new actor.

Firstly, kudos to you for that Vardhan, especially because you were the co-writer of the film!

What’s more, the actor has a storehouse of memories of his grandfather and his ways enough to probably write a book. (Vardhan are you listening?)

It was a comfy Tuesday afternoon when we connected with each other over the telephone to get to know more about how he has handled this paradigm shift of graduating from performing in front of the lenses of people’s eyes to performing in front of the lens of the camera!

Excerpts from the conversation -

What are the most important life lessons that you learnt from your granddad?

The first thing I learnt from him is to never be in a hurry to get success, it will come to you if it has to. Success is never in your hands, what is in your hands is just hard work. You just have to put in a lot of preparation. I learnt from his patience. He had a dream when he was 20 and he achieved it when he was 41 or 42 and he got his first major character in a film. apart from that I also learnt that if you are disciplined, half the battle is won, because if you want to last, you need to be disciplined and punctual. You also need to be believing in what you are doing and you also need to submit to the vision of the director. You have to have a certain relationship with him, it is almost like a marriage where his vision is your bible, it is you go to, so never challenge his vision and the amount of belief you had in the script when you heard the narration, make sure it is consistent till the film releases.

The credits of Yeh Saali Aashiqui has you as the co-writer of the film since when did the writing bug bite you?

I have been fascinated by writing from a very early stage in my life. Actually, it happened by fluke. Well, in one point of time in life, I was assisting Pandit Satyadev Dube, one of his assistants did not quite turn up for a particular project and I turned his assistant. I didn’t know the job then. I just wanted to help and wanted to do whatever I could get my hands on. And I was supposed to do the job just for a week, till they got another assistant writer on board. I was very young then. I was just taking notes. It was for a play called onions. In the process I realised, I had this deep inclination towards writing because I was elated doing it. That’s when I asked Panditji to be part of all their writing sessions, whenever they were adapting or creating dialogues or scenes or characterisations. I then started writing independently. But then what I wrote back then, I can’t even read today but that is when it started and it got the balls rolling and post that, there was a play when I was sixteen and it was an adaptation of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq’s life in the modern setting. And that really inspired me to understand screenplay writing in films, when I went to New York, I enrolled for a screenwriting course. And when I came back, I was working with Yash Raj Films and I request Habib Faisal to make me part of the writing process. Thereafter I worked with Jaideep Sahni. So, some of them worked, some didn’t. That’s when I was like, I have to be an actor and I have to continue to write. It was an accidental discovery but today there is not one day I don’t write.

How different is performing in front of the camera different from performing on a stage?

In theatre, there is a continuity of emotions, when you keep cutting, there are a lot of technicalities involved, it becomes more difficult to perform such a layered character. I have played some very complex character on stage and have a huge theatre experience more than films. In my family, we all started from the theatre.

Being a theatre artist, I am sure, you must be completely immersing yourself in the character you are playing, so tell me the entire process and also, do you bring your character back home?

I cannot let go of the character; I do bring back the character home. I do it at the cost of upsetting a few people. I get a little carried away and I get indulgent. I wish it didn’t happen because it is not fair to the people around me. It is good for me and my work but it affects the people around me. Because I saw, my parents were taken aback by some of the behaviours. I remember we had been to the Agra mental asylum and then on the same day, we went to the central jail and then the high-security vault where some of the most dangerous criminals in the history of India are kept. I was so shaken up and emotional about what I saw, two days later after I came back home, I just started weeping at the dining table randomly because I was so moved by the plight of these people. Even though they are all deadly criminals, I could just connect to them and understand what the human mind is capable of and what they have landed themselves in It just got to me and I understood that my parents would be so upset seeing me break down this way and my character shouldn’t affect my family. Sometime later, when I have some more experience after my take is done, my job is done, I will try not to bring my character back and then when I am back on the sets the next day, I will try and switch on again. I can’t do it right now because in theatre one thing which Dubey Saab always said is, don’t live a character, be the character. So, I am still figuring out my journey and figuring out what works best for me.

Did you ever have the chance to see your granddad performing the sets of a film, how was it?  

It was surreal, I was his biggest fan, Whatever I have learnt about film acting was from him besides Satyadev Dubey, Aditya Chopra, Manish Sharma and Habib Faisal, who were my mentors. I learnt so much from him, when I saw him perform, it was as if God himself had descended from the heavens and was performing. I was in awe. My eyes used to be wide open looking at him perform, but soon I was banned from the sets. I went for a few shoots like Gadar, Hulchul and Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, Mujhe Kuchh Kehna Hai. My grandfather would be busy while I used to be pampered by the unit. If I wanted a sandwich, it would come from the Taj, if I wanted juice, it would come from the Oberoi. I didn’t know all of this. But once, my Dadu (Amrish Puri) saw, I asked for just one banana and they got this huge plate with twenty bananas. He got bothered, he thought I would feel privileged. According to him I should feel absolutely normal and not entitled to all of this. Maybe, he felt, I would become a filmy child, a filmy kid and it would affect me and I would stop studying. That’s when he made a rule that I was never coming back on set. I was so upset. I had got a role to act in a film as a child actor in which he too was part. I really wanted to do it. I begged him so that he would allow me to do it but he was adamant. He asked me to be with theatre because according to him, the theatre would teach me and it will all happen if I am worthy!