Vijay Varma says Darlings is the ‘antithesis’ of Kabir Singh, reveals Shah Rukh Khan expressed interest in playing Hamza

Actor 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, 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 Shahid Kapoor. Kabir Singh attracted controversy for seemingly glorifying abusive behaviour, but Vijay said that Darlings never expects empathy for Hamza.

He said, “For a change, an abusive man is not being idolised the society. This is what we saw in 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, it’s told 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. And 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 (If I was younger, I would’ve done this role)’, 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 Khan thinks that he can do this role, being an absolute lover-boy and a sweetheart. Of course, I was scared to take up a role like this, but I’m very glad that it hit the nail on the head.”
Directed Jasmeet K Reen and starring Alia Bhatt in the lead role, Darlings was released on Netflix earlier this months, and regered the highest opening weekend viewership figures for an Indian film on the streamer.