Finally, convinced that he had found his calling in acting. Vivek says he got a plane and headed for New York University, where he enrolled for a post-graduate programme on film acting. And in all this, one man who stood by him, encouraging him to chase his dreams, has been his father.

"I’ve always had a lot of respect for my father as an actor," the 25-year-old points out. "I am envious of the way he can hold a scene and the way he can save a scene even if his co-actor is loud and jarring. Dad is also my second harshest critic — myself being the first!"

Once he thought he was ready, Vivek met with Varma, who offered him a bit part in Jungle. "I wasn’t very happy with the role as I felt I deserved more. So I politely declined the offer and instead, I insisted I would stay in touch for any future roles he might have for me."

Varma suggested he come back only a year later as he would be busy on the film till then. This gave Vivek the time to fine-tune his skills by attending acting workshops and learning horse riding, fencing, classical dance, stunts... the basics expected of every Bollywood actor.

Exactly a year later, while working with Suresh Oberoi on Pyar Tune Kya Kiya, Varma spotted some photographs of the young actor and requested to see him on tape. After several runs of that tape, which contained footage of Vivek rehearsing for a workshop, Varma borrowed Rs 10 from the actor’s father and offered it to the boy as a signing amount for Company.

"It was as bizarre as that," Vivek grins. "But what I did not realise at that stage was that Varma was expecting me to develop the character of Chandu on my own. So I wrote a 50 page biographical sketch encompassing Chandu’s life from the day he was born until the point where the film begins."

Apart from that, Vivek selected his own clothes for the film, took a decision to wear only slippers for his scenes and stayed for three nights in a Mumbai slum at Vikhroli — speaking, eating, sleeping and bathing like the people he would be representing in the movie.

"It would take an hour and twenty minutes every morning to have my make-up done, as I had darkened my body colour by eight shades," he recalls. "But it was necessary as there was no other way I could get under the skin of the character. And the best part is the effort does not show on screen."

Thus a star is born. MF