The success of films like the Dhurandhar franchise and Animal (2023) in recent times have shown that having a dark hero as a film’s protagonist has become the new formula for success and a norm for the industry. The audience is lapping it up too. Recently, filmmaker Karan Johar had also shared that Bollywood has become ‘obsessed’ with the hyper masculinity and alpha men trend. Actor Vijay Varma, who himself played a grey character in his recent series Matka King, opines on the trend saying, “Hamesha se hi ‘hero’ types hero bahut Kam the Bollywood mein. If you even watch Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) today, it’s not all white, it’s never been.”
The actor adds, “This is a completely common misconception, especially when it comes to discourse on films. We’ve always had morally ambiguous protagonists. Maybe except a few performances by the great Mr Rajesh Khanna, probably in films like Bawarchi (1972), the heroes are usually characters suffering from some kind of insecurities, lack, personal pursuit, or several obstacles, the story doesn’t work otherwise.”
Vijay Varma, who has been the anti-hero in projects like Darlings (2022), asserts that he relates to such grey-shaded characters more. “We’ve always had great antagonists from literature to art and cinema. Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan from Deewaar (1975) is a great example of that. I resonate more with such antagonists and anti-heroes than pure protagonists because I haven’t seen those much in our cinema in the past,” he says.
While Vijay admits the influence cinema can have on the society, he does also feel that telling dark stories may necessarily not be a glorification of them. Case in point, his show Matka King is a story of a man who does betting for a living, and while the government has been strongly working against the practice of betting and gambling online in the last few years, the show doesn’t glorify the practice. “Actually, we invite a conversation because I am very certain. Nagaraj (Manjule, director) sir and Abhay Koranne (creator), both are really capable and have such a keen focus on what they say. Their films are very socially alive and they carry a responsibility,” he says.
He further adds, “If you talk about something that has happened in the past, that doesn’t mean that you want that to happen again. Sometimes showing a torch on something that happened behind us, it is important because it also shows us that resistance to gambling has been around since the ’60s. This character, too, faces a lot of resistance. Even today, people do it. Sab sumdi mein karte hain, koi openly nahi bolta ki ‘yes, I do it.’ It was the same back then. The cracking down on this was significant then and it is significant now, because what is there in the society, people consume that. They are interested in whatever is available to them. If liquor will not be available in the shop, then how will anyone drink it? So, it’s the same thing.”