Couldn’t have imagined, it feels surreal: Vicky Kaushal on his journey from ‘Masaan’ to ‘Chhaava’

New Delhi, Feb 12 (PTI) Vicky Kaushal says the kind of directors he got to work with in the last ten years has been nothing but a blessing and he couldn’t have imagined a better journey than this when he started out with his debut film “Masaan”.

The “Raazi” star said he finds it hard to believe that he got to be part of such varied stories that range from romance, action to big scale historical dramas like his upcoming film “Chhaava”.

“Couldn’t have imagined…  It feels very surreal. It feels there is God who’s blessing me and people’s love has been so special. The kind of directors I got to work with in these ten years has been nothing short of a blessing. So, I truly feel supremely grateful,” Kaushal told PTI in an interview.

The actor, son of famous action director Sham Kaushal, said he would have laughed if someone had told him at the time of his debut that he was going to do a big-scale historical film and play Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj in “Chhaava”, releasing in theatres on Friday.

“Masaan”, a Varanasi-set drama directed by Neeraj Ghaywan and written by Varun Grover, became a critical success after it released in 2015 and Kaushal was praised for his role as Deepak Kumar, a lower caste student in love with his upper caste classmate.

“When we were shooting ‘Masaan’, we didn’t know it’s going to be released. We didn’t know what’s going to happen to the film. It was a small film made with very limited resources. It was a parallel cinema at that time. Now, the lines have blurred quite beautifully, but there was a clear demarcation between the two then.

“At that time, I was just trying to get opportunities to prove myself as an actor within the industry,” said the 36-year-old actor.

“Chhava”, directed by Laxman Utekar who worked with Kaushal on comedy film “Zara Hatke, Zara Bachke”, is the actor’s third biographical film after “Sardar Udham” and “Sam Bahadur”. Kaushal said as someone growing up in Mumbai, he was aware of Sambhaji’s story.

“It was there in the history books but you don’t actually understand the emotional gravitas of it. I got to know the story in more detail from Laxman sir, I felt ‘Wow, this is an important story to tell’.”

It took him six to seven months for the actor to bulk up, learn horse riding, sword fighting and action training.

“I would sit with Laxman sir, our writer, Rishi Varmani, almost every day, for hours at a stretch, to just understand the history. Laxman sir gave me a detailed explanation of the culture back in the era. He also explained what does it mean to be a Chhatrapati, what was Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s struggle to become a king and what he did for the people, and the legacy that got carried forward by Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj.

“Our film is based on the book, called ‘Chhaava’ by Shivaji Sawant. So, the film’s research material expanded from that book, but the epicenter was that book.”

Kaushal said while the actors rehearse and train a lot for historical projects, it takes time to get used to costumes.

“You don’t walk around at home wearing those costumes. So, it’s only on set that you have to build that familiarity… I remember my first thought before my first shot was, ‘I need to get familiar with these costumes’. You need to make it feel like you own this.”

“Chhaava”, produced by Maddock Films, also stars Rashmika Mandanna and Akshaye Khanna in pivotal roles.