From training to be an engineer to a career in Bollywood, Vicky Kaushal has come a long way. 

The actor — action director Sham Kaushal’s son — says he remembers feeling alive when he entered Bollywood.  The 30-year-old actor, fresh from the success of Raazi, spoke on his engineering days, the importance of education, the idea to take up acting as a profession, and his initial struggle. 

“I never pondered during my struggling phase that I should have become an engineer as I knew that was not my life. I couldn’t have lived it, it would have been a very claustrophobic life. Here, whatever be the struggles, I was enjoying it. I was breathing, I felt I was living my life. It was a beautiful phase. The struggles were there but never bogged me down. Even during the struggle period I knew this is what I want to do,” Kaushal told PTI in an interview. 

The actor says as he had seen the way his father had grappled to make a mark in the film industry, he was prepared for every challenge.

“Subconsciously that happens. It gave me strength. I have seen my dad working with utmost sincerity and integrity, the sacrifices he made. I have also seen the rewards if you give your best, you get your worth. My dad has always inspired me,” said Vicky. “My job is to give my best…. I am not much of a planner, I am more of a doer.” 

He, however, does believe that engineering prepared him for the hard work he would have to put in the film industry. “At my place, it was like, whatever I do in life, graduation is very important. I am not using algebra or anything now in my work but the habit of working hard helps you. I never regretted that why I did not leave it (degree) in between. It was clear that whatever career option I take it will happen post graduation,” the actor said, adding that he always had an inclination towards cinema. 

In college, he said, he was an active theatre participant. “One day, I just felt I don’t belong here (engineering), this life is not in sync, this is not meant for me and I need to think of what I need to do in life. I had to dig deep in my heart and think what really gives me happiness, then came, the answer...” he says. 

Vicky, whose first role was in Masaan in 2015, took a six-month acting course after completing his graduation in 2009. “(Despite) being an industry kid, I had hardly been on a film set. I wanted to know how a few pages of script and how 200-300 people come together from all walks of life and how it all translated on celluloid,” he said. “I was 22 years old and I was not in a hurry. I was not desperate to come in front of the camera. I knew that when I am in front of the camera, there is no trial and error mode. It is a test. You either fail or pass.”