Vikrant Massey’s journey as an actor started quite early and it was not by choice. He was 16, working as a barista in a Mumbai restaurant and trying to pay for his education when a television producer saw him and offered him the lead role in a show. Vikrant, who had to work 16 hours a day while juggling two jobs in addition to studying, accepted the offer. The show was never telecast at that time, but Vikrant the actor was born.
“I always wanted to be an actor, but obviously no 16-year-old wants to be an actor. I thought I would finish my graduation and then go to NSD or FTII and then maybe, when I am 24 or 25, I would act professionally,” Vikrant recalled about his journey in an interview to Republic.
The actor said he was raw and untrained. when he faced the camera, simply lured by the promise of a fee that could help him pay for his education. “I still remember the date, it was December 19, 2024. Before that, I was working as a barista. I did that job because I had to support my own education. I won’t go into that sad story or my struggle. I also worked as an assistant instructor in Shiamak Davar’s company and in a restaurant in Mumbai,” Vikrant recalled.
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However, his experience facing the camera was not memorable. “It was in a studio on Madh Island where I live now. I was 16 and I faced the camera for the first time. I was horrible at what I was doing and the director was a very experienced film director at that time. Before, people would ask film directors to edit their show because they would have more money at the beginning. I was so bad. I remember very clearly, my director yelled at me and I started crying. I was very naive. I was mouthing my lines and he was not happy with the way I that he was doing it “That, of course. He lost his patience and yelled at me into the microphone. He said some things… I remember breaking down. I felt very humiliated,” Vikrant said.
The show’s producer, who had offered her the role, tried to calm the teenager down. “The producer of the show came to see me and I only told her one thing: ‘yaar sabke samne aisa kyu bola?’ And that was it. I took it on the chin. That has always been my nature, I am always willing to learn, always wanting to unlearn at the same time. And I’m glad that experience happened.”
He said the filmmaker came later and apologized to him. “He was quite generous. That same night, he came up to me and said, ‘I’m so sorry and I shouldn’t have spoken to you that way.’ But that moment, the first day of filming, when you’re yelling at him in front of 100 people… I tend to forgive, but I don’t forget it.”
He, however, said he has nothing against the director. “The experience wasn’t serious enough for me to want revenge for it. There have been certain experiences that I’ve had very close to my heart, especially with a lot of casting directors when I was moving from television to film. And unfortunately, there was this preconceived notion that television actors were not good at what they do. That they are not good actors. And there was this disparity between film actors and television actors. So there were some people, like producers and casting directors, who very openly told me that you know. You’re a television actor and we will never work with you because you are a television actor.”
Vikrant named several talented people who left television and improved cinema by being a part of it. “Some of the best actors you see now, especially in the last 10 years, are television actors, be it Yami Gautam or Mrunal Thakur. Aryan Khan stole the show doing Ba***ds of Bollywood. Directors like Anurag Basu, Anurag Kashyap, have worked in television.”