Image instagrammed by Vikrant Massey. (courtesy: VikrantMassey)
Vikrant Massey, who has been making the right noise with his stellar performance in 12th Fail, recently opened up about his Television days in an interview with Unfiltered by Samdish. Before venturing into films, Vikrant acted in hit serials like Balika Vadhu, Dharam Veer, Baba Aisa Var Dhoondho. Recalling days of struggles and hectic shifts, Vikrant told Unfiltered by Samdish, "Back in the day, artistes would shoot for 18-20 hours. There came a time when I had to shoot for 110 hours straight without stopping."
Vikrant also narrated an incident where scriptwriters reworked scripts to use him as fillers in every frame. He said, "They had no choice but to use me as a filler. Day shifts were melting into night shifts. There was no sense of time. Funnily, when they finally packed up, it wasn't even for me. An actor who came to the set at 10 am in the morning got upset and walked out by evening."
In the same interview, Vikrant shared that he decided to quit TV when he had Rs 35 lakhs per month contract in hand. "I earned a lot in TV. I bought my first house at the age of 24. But all that regressive content on TV was happening simultaneously and I felt like coming out of the world and trying my luck in cinema. I realised that though I became secure financially, it didn't help me sleep well. I had this realisation when I fulfilled all my financial responsibilities towards my parents and others, Vikrant said.
He added, "My parents were in shock when I told them I am going to restart over in films. I was making a lot of money. At the age of 24, I was earning ₹ 35 lakh per month, especially for someone who comes from a middle-class background. I quit TV at the time when I had a ₹ 35 lakh per month contract in my hand. I decided to do good work and find peace."
Vikrant Massey won the Best Actor award (Critics) for 12th Fail in the 69th Filmfare Awards this year. 12th Fail is based on the real-life journey of Manoj Kumar Sharma, who became an IPS officer after cleaning toilet, working in library and toiling hard to overcome every obstacle which came his way. The film stars Vikrant Massey, Medha Shankar, Anant V Joshi, Sanjay Bishnoi. The long list of 12th Fail fans among celebrities include Kamal Haasan, Hrithik Roshan, Vijay Deverakonda, Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone, Farhan Akhtar, Anil Kapoor and filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, Vicky Kaushal.