Vijay Varma

Biography

Vijay Varma began his acting journey as a theatre artist, who went on to work in both Hindi and Telegu films.

He was nominated for a Filmfare award for his exceptional performance in Gully Boy (2019), a coming-of-age story about an aspiring street rapper from the Dharavi slums of Mumbai, directed by Zoya Akhtar. It was India's official entry at the Academy Awards, 2020.

Vijay was born in a Marwari family in Hyderabad, the youngest of three siblings. After finishing his postgraduate course in Hyderabad, he shifted base to Mumbai to become an actor against his family's wishes.

He secretly did theatre and secured a seat at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and for which he ran away to Pune. His friend paid the fees for the two-year acting course and also helped with his monthly allowance.

Vijay's first acting job was a short film titled 'Shor', which was highly acclaimed at festivals and won the Best Short Film at the MIAAC festival, in New York. He then went on to play the role of a young revolutionary in the critically acclaimed period drama 'Chittagong' (which was shot in 2010, and released in 2012), which won two National awards.

He played the leading role in Monsoon Shootout (2013). The film was an official selection at Cannes Film Festival 2013, (however the film found theatrical release only in 2017). He captured the critics and audience's attention for his portrayal of a violent and abusive boy in the sleeper hit Pink (2016).

Though it was Gully Boy (2019) that brought Vijay into the limelight! With a breakout performance of a cunning yet empathetic street hustler, he made it to the list of the '100 best acting performances of the decade by Film Companion. Soon after that, he was seen playing a part of a narrator in Super 30 (2019).

In 2020, Vijay saw more commercial success with Baaghi 3 (2020). He was also part of the Hindi-language anthology horror film Ghost Stories (2020), where he was paired opposite Janhvi Kapoor, the film was directed by Zoya Akhtar and was aired on Netflix.

Vijay gave a tour de force performance of a psychopathic narcotics kingpin in the widely watched Netflix series She (2020). Vijay's portrayal of 'Sasya', impressed the audience and critics. He was recently seen in Tigmanshu Dhulia's Yaara (2020).

Vijay's upcoming projects include Mira Nair's A Suitable Boy (2020) (based on the novel by Vikram Seth) for the BBC, and Anand Gandhi's mini-series, a sci-fi mockumentary 'OK Computer'.

Vijay is an avid video gamer and lives on the mantra, 'watch one film every day'.