EXCLUSIVE! Vikrant Massey on ‘The Sabarmati Report’: ‘The price of your shoes & mobile phone doesn’t decide your worth’ | Not Just Bollywood

In an EXCLUSIVE interview with Firstpost’s Lachmi Deb Roy, master craftsman Vikrant Massey talks about her journey in the entertainment industry, dealing with trolling, preparing for roles in films like the recently released ‘The Sabarmati Report’, Netflix’s Sector 36 and more.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

How do you deal with criticisms from unqualified critics, especially YouTubers putting up rubbish on social media and claiming to be journalists?

We are far more susceptible to extreme criticism and most of them are unqualified. They don’t realise the effort that goes into making films. Criticism is fine, in fact it is more than welcome. I see it in a way that it helps me get better. But when it gets personal and comes from a place of bringing you down with lack of awareness and this comes from mostly unqualified people who just have access to the internet. They are just so harsh and below the belt.

I mean there are ways to say the same thing. But you cannot stab someone in the heart and expect them to pat you on your back. It never works that way.

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There are two types of journalism… extreme right and extreme left as you mentioned in my previous interview and then there is a balance too. What do you have to say about that?

Balanced journalism t oday is rare. And if there is something like that then we should latch on to it, but I don’t see much of it. There are few, I am not disagreeing. But news channels and YouTube channels, I don’t see any balance at all.

The clash between Hindi and English journalism…

Bhasha (language) is just a medium, but how capable you are at your work is most important. What shoes you are wearing or what phone you are carrying and how expensive your shoes are, that doesn’t decide how capable you are. Your capability completely rests on your intent and talent or your gumption to fall and get up again. These are complex things.

I will give you a small example of UPSC exams, those chosen will be taking care of the country or the functions of the country. Kids who will be actually running the country, but sadly more than 80 percent of the people are English speaking pupils, just a handful of them are Hindi speaking. Then you are not even talking about the regional languages because they don’t even exist. Do they not want to serve the country, they too want to serve the country and they come from such challenging socio-economic backgrounds they want to do it all the more? But they don’t have the opportunity.

How did you deal with the character of Netflix’s _Sector 36_  where you play the role of a cannibal?

For the first time I was very clear that this character is not coming home because I tend to bring people home. Thankfully, when I shot for it I didn’t have a kid. But, ‘yes’ we were married and were planning for a kid.

When I read the script, I really wanted to do it because it was phenomenal and it was such a challenging one. But I knew that this guy who I am playing in Sector 36 cannot come home. Because I  have the  habit of carrying the character home and it really stays with me longer than needed which I really didn’t want.  

WATCH the trailer of The Sabarmati Report here: