Vijay Varma says 'Darlings' is the 'antithesis' of 'Kabir Singh'

Vijay Varma, who recently starred as an abusive man in the dark comedy 'Darlings', said that the film's co-producer Shah Rukh Khan loved the character so much that he said that he would've wanted to play him if he was younger. Shah Rukh is best known for his romantic roles but began his film career playing negative roles.

In an interview with 'Film Companion', Vijay also compared his character - Hamza - to the controversial Kabir Singh, played by Shahid Kapoor. 'Kabir Singh' attracted controversy for seemingly glorifying abusive behaviour, but Vijay said that 'Darlings' never expect empathy for Hamza.

He said, "For a change, an abusive man is not being idolised by society. This is what we saw in the 80s and 90s cinema."

When he was told that people thronged to watch 'Kabir Singh', Vijay said that Hamza is the 'antithesis' of what that film represented.

"It was a different point of view. And the magic lies in the gaze as it's told by a woman. I feel Jasmeet's perspective was the correct one and the important one. And that perspective allowed the character to be humanised but didn't sugarcoat his monstrosity. We cannot celebrate this behaviour. Also, this is a cause-and-effect world. Therefore, the end of the character."

Reminded that Shah Rukh also played 'negative characters' back in the day, Vijay said, "I remember somebody had told me that when Shah Rukh read the script, he said, 'Agar main young hota toh main hi karta', which was interesting for me to hear. That was also one of the reasons I felt that I could do this role. If Shah Rukh thinks that he can do this role, being an absolute lover-boy and a sweetheart."