Ahead of the release of Govinda Naam Mera, Bollywood star Vicky Kaushal said he feels like a debutant all over again as the upcoming film is a ‘very new’ world that he tried to inhabit as a performer.
As someone who has aced emotionally intense roles right from his 2015 debut Masaan to his last outing Sardar Udham, the National Award-winner has dipped his toes into the out-and-out masala entertainer space for the first time with Govinda Naam Mera.
The genre is like the road less travelled for Kaushal, but he isn't worried about the fate of the movie, which is directed by Shashank Khaitan.
“For me, it is like my debut film because this is something I've never done before. It's only been seven years, but still I have not done anything like this before. It’s a big test. The movie might or might not work for me as an actor, and I'm really excited for that,” said the actor.
In Govinda Naam Mera, Kaushal plays the titular character of Govinda Waghmare, a struggling choreographer caught between his bullying wife Gauri (Bhumi Pednekar) and girlfriend Suku (Kiara Advani), who wants to marry him. It's all fun and games until he discovers that he may end up losing his inheritance, the ancestral bungalow in which he lives and what follows is a thrilling set of events.
Calling himself a director's actor, the 34-year-old said it was all about surrendering to the filmmaker's vision. “It's really something very, very new that I have attempted... Eventually, it is about adding the grammar of the director's vision to your process. That precisely is my process or at least a very integral part of my process.”
Vicky also recalled learning the trick to convincingly embody a character from Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. “I learned a very interesting thing from Shah Rukh Khan sir. He told me there is always a grammar attached to every film and it comes with the director, what vision he has. It is important to understand the grammar that the director is coming with and my job is to fully suspend myself,” he said.
“We are blessed to be in a country where our taste is so diverse as an audience. For a director, what's important is that the expression should come out in the most honest form and that's our job as actors to kind of deliver that with that much honesty,” the actor added.
Govinda Naam Mera, which also features Renuka Shahane, Sayaji Shinde, and Dayanand Shetty, is set to stream on Disney+ Hotstar from December 16. The movie is jointly produced by Viacom18 Studios, Dharma Productions and Khaitan.
