Vijay Deverakonda 7 Things You Didn’t Know About Him

1.     Shot to superstardom with Arjun Reddy in 2017, Vijay  made his debut  6 years earlier  on  Nuvvila. This  is  the Telugu   film that also introduced Yami Gautam. Vijay says he is proud  of his debut  film and performance  , although superstardom came later.He  urged to see it  and even sent me a DVD  of it. He  is  right.  It is  an accomplished  performance.

2.     Arjun Reddy was initially  planned with another  Telugu star actor Sharwanand.  But the director  was  unable to get a producer  for  the  project.  This is when director Sandeep Vanga got Vijay  Deverakonda into the  project and Vanga’s  brother agreed to produce  . The startling film had  the critics gagging on  its alleged misogyny and the  MeToo accusations. Vijay distanced  himself from his character and said to me, “I most certainly don’t approve  of  the  way Arjun Reddy behaves  with  women  or for that matter men. Live and let live.Cause no harm. Mind your own business. Chill and be happy. These are my moral standards, that’s all I’ll hold myself responsible to. Nope, #MeToo hasn’t changed my rapport with my co-actors. I am as chilled out with them as they’re with me.I don’t know what impact it has had on the industry, but the concept of harassment anywhere makes me pissed from my core.”

3.     In his  career  of 10 years Vijay has made two guest appearances, both unbilled. The first was  in  the Malayalam masterpiece Kumalangi Nights where Vijay was seen fleetingly in  a  movie theatre. The second guest appearance  was  in the  recent comedy blockbuster Jathi Ratnalu where he  played a  guy in a blue  shirt and  was  billed the  ‘blue-shirted’ guy. Blue is  Vijay’s favourite colour.

4.     Though he  loves his family and  wants to  place the sun moon and stars  at  his  parents’ feet , Vijay is  basically  a loner. He  loves to  take  off  for long European  trips on his  own exploring  areas  that remain  generally  unexplored.

5.     Though he  was  shown to be  an alcoholic  in Arjun Reddy, Vijay is not  fond of  alcohol. He  did not  drown inebriating  beverages  to remain in character in Arjun Reddy . His  logic  being, “If I was drunk  how would I act?”

6.     Sandeep Vanga wanted Vijay to do  the Hindi  version  of  Arjun Reddy. But sorry, no remakes  for Vijay. “Isn’t a remake  like doing the same  thing, going through the same  emotions, twice and therefore inherently  artificial?”  he once  asked me.His  Hindi  debut Liger(earlier called Fighter)  is an original  script .

7.     When Shahid  Kapoor was signed  to  do  the  Hindi  version  of  Arjun Reddy Vijay was delighted.  Vijay is a  Shahid fan. He told me, “I used to trip on Shahid’s   debut film  Ishq Vishk  and I struggled for days to get tickets to  see  him in  Kaminey. I danced my ass off to Dhan-tanaa from Kaminey with my friends behind closed doors. So it’s extremely strange when I think of the fact that he is playing the role I did.I am sure he will have his own interpretation. Other than that, I just wish them the best and will wait to watch it like any other member of the audience.”