‘Nobody sees me as a hero, but I do well as boy-next-door’ 

Looks like ‘K’ is lucky for Vikky. A new talent who became instantly famous with Kendasampige, a film by Suri, is back on big screen with Kaalej Kumar. The film’s latest trailer is trending on the charts. 

Though moviegoers expected Vikky to sign up for many films after his debut, the actor took his time to pick his next. His second movie will be out two years after Kendasampige and he says he has his reasons for going slow. 

“I came into the industry wanting to be a director, and started working with Suri,” says the actor. “But the director felt that I could face the camera and Kendasampige happened. But, before signing my second film I was confused about whether to get into direction or to continue with acting.” Then a few friends suggested that he stick with the latter for a while longer, and Kaalej Kumar came along. “But more than anything else, Suri had given me my first hit with Kendasampige and I didn’t want to let go of that success easily. I had to act more responsibly, and so I took a while to decide on my next move.” 

Vikky also got to help out with direction in this film, with director Santhosh allowing him chip in for Kaleej Kumar’s story and screenplay. “The story has been written by Kiran,” he says. 

The actor feels that that the character he gets to play in Kaleej Kumar was apt for him. “As an actor, I should first know what I am capable of,” he says. “Nobody looks at me as a hero, they see me more as a boy-next-door. A hero needs to have a good physique, a certain body language and a larger-than-life image, and these I do not have.” But he feels he does have pluses other actors do not have and tries to use them to his advantage. “People think of me as a brother, friend and son in their family. People who have seen me in Kendasampige feel that I am a natural in front of the camera.”

Vikky is glad that the film’s teaser, songs and trailer have been well appreciated, and he hints that Kaalej Kumar deals with a unique subject. “We spelt college as 'kaalej' and introduced a quirk,” he says, adding, “Likewise the storyline will be completely different from that of the usual college films.”

He says that working on this film was like going back to college. “Though I have never done ragging in real life, I had to do it on screen,” he adds.
 
The film produced by L Padmanabh features Samyuktha Hegde as the female lead, and the rest of the cast includes Ravi Shankar and Shruthi.

Vikky, who has decided to wait before making his directorial debut, says he has a few good projects in line. His next, after Kaalej Kumar, will be a story written by Sathyaprakash of Rama Rama Re fame. The search is on for the director and producer for that project. “I am in awe of the story written by Sathyaprakash and will work on the project whenever it is ready,” the actor says.