The current trend in Hindi cinema sees intense romances or films with hypermasculine, alpha male protagonists pull in the biggest crowds at the box office, as seen by the success of films like Dhurandhar series, Animal (2023) and Saiyaara (2025). Amid this, Vedang Raina is set to star in filmmaker Imtiaz Ali’s epic romance Main Vaapas Aaunga.
Ask the actor if the current trend gives his film an upper hand and he says, “Something works because the audience accepts it regardless of what is working in reality apart from that film. And then you think it’s the genre that is working. If the film is good, the genre works, not the other way round.” Paired opposite Sharvari in the romantic film, the film sees Vedang Raina play a Sikh boy in the pre-partition era, with their love story hitting a roadblock due to the 1947 India-Pakistan partition. The actor’s older self is portrayed by veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah in the film.
Watch the full interview with Vedang Raina and Sharvari here:
But with only a few genres pulling in big bucks at the ticket counters, it can limit the role prospects for young actors like him. Giving his take on the matter, Vedang elaborates, “Dhurandhar is quite a unique film for its time but now people think it’s the genre that is working. Firstly, hypermasculinity is not a genre. I don’t think it is the reason a film works, it works because it has great content.”
Using another example of Vikrant Massey-starrer 12th Fail from the recent past, Vedang adds, “Amid this, a 12th Fail worked and I don’t know what category it falls in. So, at the end it’s about the content that is working and the hope is that the content is timeless and it doesn’t fall into a bracket of genre working. Our film has come from a very pure and genuine place, and I like to believe that this is the reality that something coming from the heart connects with the audience.”
Vedang started his acting career with Zoya Akhtar’s ensemble musical The Archies in 2023. He then made his big screen debut with the Alia Bhatt co-starrer Jigra in 2024. After a year-and-a-half, he is now returning to the celluloid with Main Vaapas Aaunga, and he insists that getting to be part of an Imtiaz Ali film a “privilege”. “These are things that were beyond my imagination even about five years ago,” he signs off on a cheerful note.