BollyParty

If any one has been benefited the maximum by the phenomenal success of the film Bheja Fry, it is none other than actor Vinay Pathak who has been catapulted to big time fame with the accolades he received for his performance in the film.

At the outset, Vinay Pathak asserts when I meet him on the eve of the release of the film at the office of One More Thought Entertainment which has produced the film in collaboration with him, that the title of the film is apt according to its story.

"The film sets out to celebrate the ordinariness and life around every one of us".

Vinay adds. "Dasvidaniya is about being happy. It is about the life led by you and me and each and every person out there. The hair style that I sport in Dasvidaniya is as per the requirement of the script and not to elicit humor.

It is indeed a matter of concern and a great tragedy that we are conditioned to laugh at anything that is not the trend or the fashion."

Vinay confesses that the making of Dasvisdaniya was delayed because he had become quite busy after Bheja Fry had clicked in a big way. Vinay does not agree that a film like Dasvidaniya may not have happened had Bheja Fry not clicked.

"Honestly, if Bheja Fry had not been released, Dasvidaniya may have been released even earlier. Like Bheja Fry, Dasvidaniya is a character-driven film in which the characters support the story, not otherwise. "

Vinay feels that it is a fallacy that a film will not get an opening if has a common man in the lead.

"A good film will always get a great opening, whether there is a star or not. Khosla Ka Ghosla was loved by the people though there were no stars in it to draw the audience.

Then came Bhjeja Fry. You see, people will definitely go to see a film which does not follow a certain formula. If you make a film with honesty and passion, the audience will appreciate."

Vinay has not let stardom go to his head though he has been cast in the lead in quite a few films. "Most of the roles that I take up have always been character-driven and not hero- driven.

My endeavor has always been to choose a role base on how excited I get when I listen to the narration of the story, whether it is the one I did in Sudhir Mishra's Khoya Khoya Chand for which Sudhir asked me to lose my weight or Bheja Fry."

"I am not at all in the running with any Khan in Bollywood. It is wrong to say that I am charging a whopping sum of three to four crores to act in a film. I am happy as an actor.

I have always believed that it is the script which is the hero of any film, and not the actor. I am keen on doing myriad roles which the so called stars do not like to play.

I feel that stars do only one dimensional roles and refuse to touch a character role even with a barge pole, though I think that all heroes are actually common people".

Vinay had actually made his debut with Fire.

"I have always enjoyed working in one film or serial at a time and have never acted in more than one serial at a time I have always preferred quality over quantity. In the last fifteen years I have to my credit only 20 films as an actor. I made my debut with a cameo role as a guide in Taj Mahal.

I am from Bhojpur. It was with the TV serial Yeh Ishq Nahin Aaasaan produced by Girija Shankar that I had made my debut as a leading man while Om Puri played the parallel lead on TV. "

Vinay does not feel that his age is a handicap as far as he is concerned as an actor in Bollywood at a timer when teenyboppers are emerging by the dozens.

I have no qualms to confess that I am older now when compared to what I was when I had set my foot in the industry a few years ago. It adds to my acting, because I can now play King Lear though I cannot play Romeo. I cannot play Salim but I can play Akbar now.

People now trust me with much more complex characters unlike earlier when I used to be bombarded with mostly comic roles."

Vinay is currently also working in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi with Shah Rukh Khan. "It has indeed been a very humbling experience working with an actor of his stature, who gets excited about every scene.

Besides Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, I am also having up my sleeves films like SRK (It's a remake of the Malayalam hit Chintavishtayaya Shyamala and I play a good for nothing husband whose name is Shivaji Rao Khote, which explains why the title of the film is SRK) Pappu Can't Dance Saala and Oh My God, Straight, Raat Gayi Baat Gayi, Antardwandh and Mumbai Chakachak (in which I play a negative role)"

Vinay, who says he would like to direct a film one day insists that he is addicted to struggle in life. "Initially I was struggling as an actor and now I am struggling as a producer. I think struggling keeps me on the edge."