Vijay Kalvani was working as a corporate when he realised that the job was not his calling, but acting was. He immediately quit his job and joined a theatre group, and from here his journey as an actor started. Vijay takes us through his career and how things are going on at the moment in this interview.
“After working in a corporate environment for almost 10 years, one fine day I decided to do something that would probably help me forget all corporate pressures and this is how I ended up joining a theatre group in 2010. In 2011, I got my first advertisement and after that I started visiting casting directors at different television production houses. Shashi Sumeet productions were instrumental in my initial breaks. Casting director Karan Kapoor who was working with Shashi Sumeet Productions at that point of time was the one who trusted my acting skills. My first producers Sumeet [Mittal] ji, Shashi [Mittal] ji and Sheetal [Somani] ji also showed confidence in the work and let me work on projects like Punar Vivah, Dil ki Nazar Se khoobsurat and eventually Tumhari Paakhi,” Vijay reminisces.
He then went to do shows such as Mere Angne Mein, Ek Tha Raja Ek Thi Rani season 2, Tumhari Paakhi and Dil Ki Nazar Se khoobsurat. He was last seen in Piya Albelaa. The actor took a two-year break and then Covid added another two years to it. Now, he is back again with the show Na Umra Ki Seema Ho.
“As a society we have created many barriers for ourselves and this title breaks one of the barriers, be it in terms of relationships or in terms of doing what you love at any stage of life. I play uncle to the female lead here,” he shares.
Content on TV has changed over the years. “We are in an ever changing industry and I think over a period of time, as our audience is becoming mature, content on television is becoming more real and believable. As of today it is still over the top to some extent. I know that the creative teams in different channels are trying to experiment with content. In fact Piyaa Albela was one such attempt where Sooraj Barjatya ji and Zee TV came together to create a completely different kind of content where the male protagonist was a Swami Vivekananda’s follower,” adds the actor, who has also done films such as Kick and Krrish 3.