He has been around in the industry for nine years now, but it was only in 2019 that he became a familiar face with his performance as Moeen in "Gully Boy". The spotlight has never left Vijay Varma since then, and the actor now asserts he wants to have a long career in Bollywood.

Vijay ventured into Bollywood in 2012 with "Chittagong", and his first big break was in 2016, where he shared screen space with Amitabh Bachchan in "Pink". He was then seen in films such as "Gully Boy", "Yaara" and "Bamfaad". He was a talking point with his performance in the web-series "Mirzapur 2" as well as his recent released show "OK Computer".

Talking about Bollywood being a brutal place that defines success through hits and misses, Vijay says his fears are different.

"I don't know. I know that the audience suddenly starts to lose interest in certain actors and I could never figure out what could be the reason, but it is one of the deepest fears -- One of the fears I would have is not to be accepted by the audience," Vijay told IANS.

That's not his only fear, though.

"The second biggest fear will be to lose your capability as an actor. You're no longer able to do something surprising or invent a character or to do something that fascinates people. These are the fears every artiste lives with, and they therefore try to push themselves harder and reinvent themselves time and again," he said.

The 37-year-old does not want to stop early. "I would want to have a long career…. Would want to tell a lot many stories through a lot many characters… Best way to go about this is by keeping my head on the shoulder and feet on the ground and working hard, smart and taking risks," he signed off.

(Durga Chakravarty can be contacted at durga.c@ians.in)