Tanuj Virwani, in an exclusive conversation with Cutting Shots, breaks down how he it all comes together for him when changing skins for his characters on screen. Further, he also unpacks more; from his only ‘regret’ about his last theatrical release, Yodha to spilling the beans about the person who is his harshest critic.
“Game badalna toh meri fitrat mein hain.” Remember Vayu Raghavan aka Tanuj Virwani’s famous dialogue from Amazon Prime’s Emmy-nominated series, Inside Edge? Off screen too, the actor refuses to let the knockdowns in his life define him. “I know there will be many more ups and downs in my career and I am ready to embrace it with open arms,” he lets out some candid spills during the course of our tête-à-tête
Excerpts-
Q. Despite being creatively inclined, you were quite underconfident as a kid. You mentioned somewhere that you were overweight and would stammer a lot. Later, you went on to work as an assistant director on films like Chance Pe Dance, and nurtured the dream of becoming a director or a scriptwriter. Was there any particular incident or event that triggered you to shift gears and give acting a shot instead?
A. There was no incident per se, but I think it’s something that happened semi-gradually over the span of a year and a half as you rightly summed up. When I was an assistant director, I got to spend a lot of time on sets. I was literally the first person to arrive on the sets and the last person to leave. One of my primary jobs was being a clapper boy which meant that I was the only person between the camera and the actor. I had to give clap and go and then come back again for the cut. So, it gave me a very good view of how actors are able to switch on and off on ‘action and cut’. It opened a whole new brave world for me.
It’s very different when you are watching a movie at home or in cinema halls because you know at the back of your head that everything that you are seeing is make-believe, no matter how realistic it may appear. But when you are on sets, you have these people who are having normal conversations and then, suddenly they just transform into something else when they hear the cue. It’s a whole different world. The set transforms into something else. And then few minutes later or however long the take is, they are back to where they were. In those few brief seconds, they just transport both themselves as well as you to this magical place. I was mesmerized by that and thought ek try to banta hain. I was like I should give acting a shot.
In real life, there are so many things that you aspire to do. For example, I am a big fan of cricket and have been playing this sport since I was a kid. But, it’s not something that I pursued professionally. A show like Inside Edge gave me the opportunity to enact a superstar cricketer and actually play on real grounds. I got to experience that whole thrill of what it feels like to be a cricketer. Similarly, I have got the chance to play so many diverse characters because of me being an actor. I find that really fascinating because at the end of the day, it’s how you observe human beings and are able to translate that on screen. I think acting is one of the coolest jobs in the world.
Q. A debut film is always very special for an actor. It’s kind of surreal when everything finally falls into place after the hustle. You hear ‘lights, camera and action’ for the first time and that’s literally music to your ears. Do you remember your first shot?
A. Yes, I do remember my first shot. We were shooting at Juhu and my co-star on that particular film was Puneet Isaar. He was this big guy and I was pretty overwhelmed. Frankly, I was scared. So, I was like I need to get through this day anyhow and the director should be happy with my work. I decided to take one day at a time. It was not memorable, it was just plain scary (laughs). I was very excited up until I reached the sets and was like, ‘Oh my god, there are so many people around.’ Normally, when you are behind the camera, you ain’t concerned about these things because nobody is paying attention to what you are doing. But suddenly when you are the actor and the main lead on your debut film, people view you from a completely different lens. I found that very terrifying.
Actually, it took me most of my first film to cope with the rigors of our industry. You really need to be in the present and let go of inhibitions if you are to be a pure actor. Remembering lines and saying them aloud is one thing. You need to have good memory and good hearing power for that. But to be able to effectively express that and not be overwhelmed by the people around and the other things on the set or feel intimidated or shy is very important. Maybe for some people, that comes easier than others. But, I feel for some, it’s an acquired learning.
Q. Recently, I came across this really cool quote which says, ‘Failure and its accompanying misery is for the artist his most vital source of creative energy.’ Your first three films (Love U Soniyo, Purani Jeans and One Night Stand) failed to click at the box office. It is quite natural for anyone to feel let down when things don’t work in your favour. How did you manage to maintain that fire for acting in you? Secondly, in retrospect, do you witness a shift in your perspective when it comes to dealing with rejections and failures?
A. Yes. I want to say going back to those years, I did find it pretty tough for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you feel like you are giving it your best and then nothing seems to be working; not with the critics or the audience or at the box office. Secondly, there’s an added pressure when you are a famous person’s son. There are expectations from you and you just feel like you are letting your parents and people who vouched for you down. So, that’s definitely something that I grappled with.
But having said that, I think you need to surround yourself with the sort of company that helps you negate and reverse through such tricky conditions and phases in your life and your career. You have to learn to be there for yourself, be your own guide and your own voice of reason. In hindsight when I look back at that phase, it’s strange that I say it now, but I do believe that it was my best phase. Because had I got instant success on my very first film be it creatively or financially then I would probably not have that ‘jigar‘ or hunger that I know for the fact that I have today.
I had a pretty bad injury three weeks back when I slipped and fell while playing cricket in monsoons. I broke my collar bone and had to be rushed for an emergency surgery. I had a metal plate inserted in my shoulder. Under normal circumstances, the old me would have just probably gone into a shell and refrained from doing things until complete recovery. But because I think I have faced a fair amount of rejections and have seen failures, desperation and eventually success, so I understand its value and I am more than fine doing my ground promotions as much as my body physically allows me. I am doing it happily because I love what I do. I am not going to let an injury get into my way.
You go to gym to build your physique and muscles. But it’s equally or perhaps more important to build your mental muscles. I just feel only failure can teach you that. It’s very difficult to learn from other people’s mistakes. Until you don’t fall flat on your face a few times, it’s not going to pinch you and you are not going to understand what that feels like. You are not going to comprehend like, ‘okay, I don’t want to feel that again.’ The only way I achieve that is if I do my best and put myself in the best possible way to succeed. So, I always maintain that failure does teach you a lot more than success because if the going is good and everyone is praying to the rising sun, you are not looking at your flaws or where you can get better. You are just focused on, ‘oh my god, I am looking at the world and can do no wrong. I touch films to gold.’ But if you have seen failure, you feel the absolute opposite. It’s important for every creative person to experience some degree of failure that makes your grasp and your will power stronger to succeed. You need to ask yourself whether you are here for a year or for the next forty-fifty years of your life, and my answer will always be the latter.
So, if you want to be a horse that can win the long race then you have to be ready to rough it. I always tell myself that as long as you can go to bed every night telling yourself that you gave your best, that’s all that matters.
Q. This brings me next to the most important turning point in your career- Inside Edge. In your words, ‘your career was in the ICU before that show.’ You said there was a certain angst in you to prove yourself. You channeled that in your performance and the result was there for all to see. It’s not a surprise that your character in that show, Vayu Raghavan continues to remain one of your most memorable and popular roles till date. Do you feel that pressure on you to replicate that success every time you take up a web show?
A. Inside Edge, Amazon, Excel and my character Vayu Raghavan couldn’t have happened at a better time because firstly, my career before that was absolutely down in the dumps and secondly as you mentioned, I did have a lot of angst. When you haven’t seen success and don’t know what it tastes like, when you feel like you are just one project away from it but you just don’t know if that’s ever going to happen, it makes you desperate and angsty. It’s a different sort of a feeling and I did subconsciously channeled that into my performance. If you ask me if this was how I intended it to be all along with Vayu, I would say, I don’t know. I just feel circumstantially because of where I was mentally in my head, I was able to play that character in a certain way.
You know the funny thing is I actually found it more difficult to play this character the second time because by the time I came back to do the second season, the show was a resounding success all over India and the world. It even received an Emmy nomination. Like the tide had completed turned and so suddenly, I got the monkey off my back. I didn’t have my back against the wall so I was relieved and satisfied. Sometimes, you are at your weakest and most vulnerable when you are too satisfied. I was like, ‘oh shit, last time, I had the angst, now I am at peace because I feel now no one questions me or my talent or my sense of work, so how am I going to find this guy again?’ The fear was that since it worked the first time, now everyone would feel that I was just a fluke or one trick pony so it’s important that you double down. I feel the second season of any show that you do or any film for that matter, is very important. It’s the way of proving to yourself as well to the audience who loved you the first time that ‘listen I got this. In fact, I am going to get better and own this character even more.’
So, I found the second season, at least the first couple of days very difficult. I remember I used to constantly go to our show runner, Karan Anshuman and ask him if I was still Vayu and he would assure me that he would let me know if there was any problem in my performance or if I went off the track. He was very reassuring about the whole thing. That’s how it went. Of course, you can’t plan these things or know what the trajectory of your career is going to be like. Obviously when I envisioned myself as an actor, I was like okay, I will be like this next big star. But then, your life and your career will never turn out the way exactly how you visualized it.
With Inside Edge, not even in the thousand years, could I have imagined the fact that this character would resonate with so many people and it would reach such a wide audience, or even the show, for that matter, be such a massive success. But then, with Season 2 and 3, we somehow kept managing to prove ourselves and I give that credit to everybody who was involved. It wasn’t just me, everyone was pretty nervous because suddenly there was this burden of expectations on us. When the first season came out, nobody had any idea about what to expect from it. It wasn’t a film where by Friday or Saturday, you would come to know whether it’s a success or a failure. It was only after two-three weeks when my EP called me up for a success party and told me that the show was a proper, legit hit.
This one character, one show and one platform as a whole, reinvigorated my belief, my faith in myself and my acting ability. I needed that. I believe that if you work honestly and consistently towards your goal, such options eventually come your way.
Coming to the pressure part, of course, I do feel it. Inside Edge worked. Now after that probably because of the pandemic, for close to two and a half years, we were all stuck in a situation where the theatres kept opening and shutting, and there was no consistency of entertainment and I guess, cinema’s loss was OTT’s gain. I don’t mean to put this in a careless way but because of the pandemic and nobody venturing out, as an OTT actor predominantly, I got a lot more opportunities. In fact, in 2020, I had more releases in that one year than I had in the rest of my career put together at that point.
For me, I reached a point where I myself was not too happy with the kind of work I was doing because I felt I was getting monotonous and not enjoying myself enough. I was just doing it like a job. I felt the acute need to slow down a bit and focus on quality over quantity. So, it started donning on me that, ‘hey listen, just because you lucked out on a show like Inside Edge once, that doesn’t mean that next time when you goof up, you are going to get out the jail past once again.’ I reminded myself that I had to treat my career sensitively with lot more ‘theraav’ and restrain. I would rather have two or three shows or films coming out in a year where the audience thinks, ‘we miss seeing Tanuj onscreen and we want to see what he does next’ as opposed to having a release in every two months. That’s when the breaks happened. I know the pressure is there, because now, I need to look for the next big thing. But, I am going to focus on quality work.
For me, quality work doesn’t mean that it is necessary for me to be in every scene. There are shows where I have played the lead and then, I have also done shows where I am very much a supportive cast. As long as the character can influence the larger scheme of things happening on the show and bring a seismic change to whatever is happening on screen, I am happy. As long as I get something else to do, I am happy. So far, the pressure is there but I am going to work with responsibility. That’s something I would say to everyone.
Q. When I have a quick look at your filmography, I find that you seem to gravitate towards darker materials or roles of varying intensity. I have often heard actors talk about how they sometimes experience a blending of their real self with the characters that they play on screen. I remember Benedict Cumberhatch, while doing Sherlock, talking about how while he enjoyed playing that role, he also felt it kind of rubbed off on him. He recalled how his mother told him that he had become snappish while filming that show. So far in your career, has there been any instance where you felt you got ‘too lost’ in your role?
A. Many times people feel that when you do a dark role, you are a dark person. I don’t agree with that hypothesis at all. I believe that there is darkness in each of us and even though if you are the most positive soul out there, there will be some amount of darkness. Maybe in a lesser quantity, but sab mein hain. But it is how you channelize that. For me, I find acting to be extremely therapeutic. I have never, touchwood, had to seek therapy, though there’s nothing wrong with it. I am not a trained actor either. I have to draw from my real-life experiences and emotions and situations that I have experienced, and use that somehow and manipulate myself to reach where I need to on screen.
Like in 2023, I did a show called Bajao which was a very light show with physical humour. For that, I don’t really have to access those emotions and darkness. But if I do something like a Cartel or Tandoor or even certain parts of Inside Edge, I definitely have to go to a place where I am not looking forward to be going but I need to go there so it helps me to reach where I need to. When you are acting, you are not just acting with your voice, face or expressions. You are acting with your body, soul and so many different parts of your being and with your conscious state. I believe that for someone like me who isn’t a trained actor, I have to somehow reach that place and then start from there.
For example when I have to enact a really sad scene, I try and go to a place in my life where I had been extremely sad, lost and lonely and felt like there wasn’t a way out. And then, I use that as starting point and from there, I will try and build it based on what’s written in the script. But now the challenge is, okay, it’s one thing getting yourself to go to hell, but you need a return ticket too because you have to come back as well. If I just go there and end up staying there, I might end up being a very sad, lonely person and I am going to make my life miserable and that of people around me as well. So, the trick is you have to safeguard your emotional well-being by telling yourself that, ‘hey listen, just because you are going there doesn’t mean you got to stay there. You go there, express yourself on the screen and you get out of there.’ For me, that’s something that I have consciously tried to work on.
I would find it a lot more difficult earlier. I think now, since I have been an active part of this industry for little over a decade, it’s like this imaginary switch at the back of my head where I know when to go on and off in a scene. I am a happy-go-lucky guy in real life and that’s the way I am going to be. I think it’s important about finding your way there and your way back.
Q. Speaking about your upcoming web series, Murshid, you are playing a cop for the first time. So far, different actors have come up with different interpretation of this profession. Generally, when the audience think of police officers in films/shows, they associate them with terms like mass, action or heavy dialogue-baazi, or a serious guy with a tragic backstory. Have challenging was it for you to make sure that your character in Murshid stands out from all the portrayals of men in uniform we have seen so far?
A. To be honest, I genuinely didn’t think about this. When I am offered a role and decide to be a part of a project, I don’t think about the past portrayals and whether I should make it massy, classy or cater to the audience of a certain platform. The story, the script, the setting and the people I am working with and whether I would subscribe to this OTT platform as an audience just for the show- those are the things that I look at and then, I am like okay, I want to do it irrespective of the number of the scenes I have in it.
I prefer playing characters who are not determined by their line of work or profession. I strongly believe that my character in Murshid is not defined by the uniform that he wears. Even if he was someone who worked in a bank, had a corporate job or maybe worked as an assistant director, that strong sense of self-worth would come through him no matter what he did and hence, he would take certain decisions and be a certain sort of an individual. Similarly, with a role like Cartel. I happened to play a gangster there, but he could have been from any profession. He just had leadership qualities about him. When I look at someone like Vayu (Inside Edge), even if he wasn’t a cricketer, he is just super-completive. Even if he was in the film industry, he would just be competitive.
So, I prefer to play characters based on what their life experiences were up until the moment and what they are going through during the duration of the show as opposed to what line of work they are in. That’s pretty much what I applied for Murshid as well, But having said that, I do believe that when you are playing someone from the armed forces or a man in uniform, there is a certain mobility that is associated and you want to keep that intact as much as possible. Now, if I am playing a crooked cop or some thing then that’s a completely different thing. So, that badge of honor that you wear is something what I kept consciously as a part of his personality.
Talking about the portrayal of cop in the past, nobody can do better what I do because I am unique in what I do. I believe everyone has their USP and you just need to tap into that. I am not the kind of person who believes in blending in. I like to stand out. The only way one can achieve that is by being the best version of yourself. The moment you try to imitate someone else, no matter how good that imitation is, it is still mimicry and not original.
Q. I read that your process of switching from one character to another is ‘music.’ You have a playlist for every character that you essay on screen. Did you make one for Murshid too?
A. Yes. For me, what works really well is instrumental music, preferably movie soundtracks because I feel the moment there are words in a song, I get a bit distracted. I end up focusing on the lyrics and not the music. So, depending on character, whether he is someone dark with a troubled past or does he have angst in him, and his state of mind, I make a playlist. I love music and think I fairly have a good sense of music. So, I have this big pool of music which I keep adding songs to and depending on whatever character I am playing and its prerequisites, I take around eight-ten tracks and make a separate folder on my phone according to the project’s names.
Another thing that really helps me is scent. It’s strange but I am able to associate with the character depending on the perfume that he uses or the way he smells. So, I literally choose a separate perfume based on every character I am playing. It’s just about your senses that really helps. When I am shooting for whatever duration of months, I blindly open a bottle of perfume and use only that in that period.
Something really funny happened during Cartel. We shot a large part of it before and during the pandemic. It took almost two years to shoot from start to finish. During that period, I finished my entire bottle of perfume and was not able to get the same brand (laughs). Trust me, I really panicked and feared that I would lose that character. So, I can be quite silly. I was like the perfume has run out so, I can no longer feel like him (character). But then, common sense prevailed and I managed to pull it off (laughs).
Q. In all your interviews that I have read or watched so far, I have often seen you emphasizing a lot on ‘authenticity’ i. e your belief in staying true to the roles that you choose. You said that when you started working with actors like Kay Kay Menon and others, you realized that you start acting when you stop acting. Let’s be honest, as an actor, sometimes the piece of writing that comes your way may not be the best one. In such a situation, how do you hold on to that being authentic bit?
A. Sometimes the writing is so strong that 80 percent of the work is done by it. That’s happened with me as well. But of course, there are times where I am not like in a position in my career where I can be extra choosy and do one project in one or two year. I am not there. It is what it is. So, I try and make the best of whatever opportunities come my way. I feel that if the writing is not up to the par in a specific thing, then it’s your job as an actor to use your pauses, silences and expressions and elevate the material to the best of your ability.
I believe that pure acting and the magic behind acting is found not just in the dialogues, but between full stop and the start of the next sentence. If you notice all the great actors out there, whether in India or abroad, they know how to use their silences and their pauses. Those pauses have a meaning and sometimes they possibly are able to convey more than even the words, dialogues and monologues would do. That’s what I try to focus on. But sometimes, even in that case, if the material is so poor that it is beyond redemption then nobody can save it. Then, maybe, I shouldn’t have done those projects in the first place (laughs). But as much as possible, you have to do that. I also have strive myself to believe that the material is good. Because if I myself don’t believe in it then how am I going to convince the audience. Sometimes it’s important to manipulate yourself as well within reasonable measure.
Q. Earlier this year, you seemed to be quite excited about your theatrical release, Sidharth Malhotra starrer Yodha which you believed gave you some sort of validation. Now, it’s a bit unfortunate that the film delivered an underwhelming performance at the box office. Personally, when I watched that movie, I felt that while it had some really cool action sequences and character arcs, the writing in the last 20-25 minutes suffered from a jetlag. Today when you look back, is there anything that you would want to change about your role or that film?
A. Of course, as an actor and a previous person, there are so many things that I want to change about my successful projects and the ones where I have received so much of validation from the audience as well. For a film like Yodha, firstly, it was a fantastic experience and for me, the validation didn’t come from the fact that I got to do a Dharma film; it come from the fact that after being a part of this industry for ten years and testing for so many Dharma projects, I actually got offered this role. I didn’t audition for it. That in itself was very gratifying and something that I gained a lot of confidence from. I felt like I was doing something right in my career that the directors and the makers came directly to me. It was a straight-up offer and not an audition.
Secondly, I do understand where you are coming from when you say that towards the second half of the film, the wheels just came off and the writing fell a bit. I think things were most interesting while we were on the aircraft. It was this high-octane thriller that takes off 30,000 feet above the ground. I did feel that way too, but I just feel that perhaps if maybe we had structured it a bit differently, it come have possibly worked better.
I think it took a little time to get going because we needed to set up the love story between Sid and Raashi (Khanna). He was a jilted soldier and needed a reason to believe again because we also had to plan that seed of uncertainty in different characters as well as the audience. I understand from the screenplay point of view where we were coming from. I feel we could have arrived at that moment perhaps a little earlier and spend a little more time on the flight because the general consensus from people who watched the film was that they loved the inside portions (in the flight) the most- the action, the thriller, the whodunit nature of it all. We could have gone a little more in that direction. But then, again I am just a tiny little chord in the larger scheme of things. The script was written by my directors and conceived by them. I think as first-time directors, they did a fabulous job.
I do believe a film like Yodha has the potential to do better on OTT because I feel perhaps it’s not a larger-than-life film in time and space. There’s only little that could be shown even if it’s shot well. The feedback that I have been receiving on my social media and from what I have been hearing overall is that it’s performing pretty well on Amazon Prime. So, I have absolute no regrets and I am very honored to be a part of that film. I was very happy with the role that I was offered because even if I (my character) was on the ground, trying to negate the situation, it was a different sort of a role. The only regret that I probably have is that I couldn’t grow a real moustache for Yodha because I was shooting in continuity for Bajao at that time. I feel that somewhere it restricted my performance because at the back of my mind, I was like now if I act a bit more, that fake moustache would just fall off (laughs). That’s definitely something that I won’t do again. I would ensure authenticity even in my facial hair in future.
Q. You said that your mother (Rati Agnihotri) is your biggest critic and that she watches all your work. In the past, she has shared screen space with some of the biggest superstars and filmmakers in the country. I guess you guys must be discussing work too at home. Has there been any instance where she watched your performance and was taken aback in a good way by what she saw on screen?
A. Yes yes, my mom is my harshest critic who calls spade a spade and tells me things as they are. So for the first few years in my career, seldom did I hear anything good or any sort of praise from her because she just thought I was really raw, rough around the edges and had a long way to go. I still feel I have a long way to go. I would like to believe that this is just my first decade, first of many decades in the industry. The more amazing talent, you get the opportunity to act and you subconsciously get better because you learn a lot on the job practically.
But now, I think she liked maybe Inside Edge and some of my work beyond that. She was pretty impressed by Tandoor. She didn’t think it was particularly a well-etched show but she thought that I did a good job on it considering I was playing a real-life, dark character for which I really had to abandon dignity and vanity in order to play that character in an effective way. If I had tried to play it in a heroic way then I would not have been able to do justice to what the story was. I think she definitely gave me a good amount of praise for that. She liked me in Yodha. She is yet to watch Murshid. Let’s see what she has to say.
Even in my good performances, my mom does point out my flaws. The important thing for me is to be open to that criticism to understand the difference between constructive criticism as opposed to just criticism. I am all for constructive criticism.
Q. On a parting note, recently, filmmaker Rohit Shetty in FC Front row, said that these days, the impact of social media is so heavy on actors that they have become even more conscious about their craft and restrict themselves from free flowing. As an actor, how do you look at this observation of his, and do you feel it’s possible for one to cut down all the noise around him in today’s times?
A. If you want to cut down the noise then you got to switch off the television or your computer. It’s as simple as that. It’s not like you don’t have the freedom to do that. It’s entirely your option which door you want to open; the one that leads to all the chatter on social media, the good, bad and ugly, the trolling, the lovers and the haters or you want to completely be away from that. I try to walk a middle path where I think it’s extremely important to be visible as an actor and as an person in the limelight. But having said that, I don’t think it’s important to pay so much heed to each and every comment that you read.
What happens is there will be nine good comments and you will feel happy and then you will read one nasty comment and all of a sudden, it just pinches you and hits a bit on the raw nerve. It has happened to me as well. I have become a lot better when it comes to dealing with it because I believe over the time, you just automatically grow or develop a thick skin or else you will be constantly affected by what people say.
I am not only talking about trollers here. I am saying so many times when we read reviews, critiques on the project and our performances, it’s a fact that not ten out of ten critics are going to like it, which is fine. But, I feel a lot of personal, scathing attacks happen while talking about work these days. People don’t differentiate between the public personality and the character. I find that extremely wrong and it’s something that we could all work on a little bit.
I just try and remove myself from the situation and focus on my process more than on the result. I am like chalo theek hai, I have given it my best and that’s my interpretation of this character. This is the show that I chose to do. Nobody put a gun to my head and forced me to do it. Now, I will be there with this project and hold its hand till the very end. I am not someone who will ever abandon a project because I believe this too is my baby, my creation. I sometimes feel your weaker creation needs your strength and support more than your strong ones. The strong ones have all the love and support in the world. I just feel the need to be there as a rock for my middle-of-the-road performances.
I don’t think you need to pay too much heed to what happens on social media. It’s becoming increasingly vicious and toxic. Beyond a point if you keep paying attention to it, it is bound to have an adverse effect on you.
