- Growing up, Vijay Varma had only seen a handful of movies, most notably action flicks starring Jackie Chan. “My father believed that watching films was a waste of time.”
- Sanjay Dutt’s Vaastav (1999) played an indirect role in Vijay taking up movies.
- Vijay decided to forgo his family’s handicrafts and antiques business in Hyderabad to pursue a creative career. He wanted to be a comic book artist, a tattoo artist or a fashion designer, before he arrived at acting.
- For a large part of his early theatre career, Vijay says he has played a girl and performed in shararas on stage.
- Vijay, who has a framed poster of Bruce Lee at home, confesses he’s “a huge fan”, just like his father.
- Like a true Hyderabad boy, Vijay’s death-row meal would be a full-on Andhra meal— rice and pappu (dal) with tamarind chutney, fried red chilli, papad...the works.
- Vijay is a big sneakerhead who has lost count of how many shoes he owns. His collector era started after he was gifted a pair of New Balance sneakers by Anurag Kashyap in Poland.
- Vijay signed Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy (2019) reluctantly, but he calls it the film that “changed my life”.
- Vijay’s dream role is playing former cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin, another Hyderabad icon.
- Vijay recalls that he cried himself to sleep on the night of his twin big-screen debut in 2017. Both his films—the Telugu film Middle Class Abbayi and Hindi film Monsoon Shootout—had tanked.
- Vijay’s evolution as a style icon runs parallel to his filmography pivot on IMDb. As he bagged more softer, gentler roles, the actor started experimenting with fashion more, appearing frequently on Best Dressed lists and awards of both men’s and women’s fashion magazines.
- The man who often plays Everyman, Vijay says he never understood “rich people” and their need to own multiple homes across multiple cities and sometimes in the same city.
- Vijay loves his downtime and swears by his recovery rituals—massages, ice baths, and the good ol’ meet-up with friends and venting.
- The actor says he deeply cares about issues shaping our collective future. Climate change, the need for better public transport, and Mumbai’s unchecked real-estate frenzy are always on top of his mind.
- Vijay loves eating at Benne, a “democratic eatery” where everyone has to stand in a queue (even him).
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15 very Vijay Varma things you would have never known
The actor talks about Benne dosa, Bruce Lee, and the one biopic he would love to take on
