Tanuj Virwani: I’ve been told I’m ‘entitled’, well, if that was the case, I’d have had a big banner launch

Actor Tanuj Virwani’s journey has been quite unconventional. While many from the film family only aspire to start and sustain a career in films — and he might have even started the same way — but it’s the shows on OTT platforms such as Inside Edge and Poison that gave him a footing. And the actor actually believes now is when his journey has actually started.

“You can probably discount the first five years, I was just trying to find my footing, and understand how the whole system works. It just so happened that the advent of OTT platforms happened at a time when I was looking for my position here. My career started properly with Inside Edge. I would like to believe these are the early days of my career. I’m not a product of any film school or had formal training, I learnt by interacting with people on set,” tells us the 33-year-old. 

Not many are aware that Virwani is the son of yesteryear actor Rati Agnihotri. In the context of insider-outsider debate today, was he also, at any point, dragged into it, and told that he must have got it all easy?

He says, “Main thoda bach gaya, because it takes time for people to make that connection, her working surname is Agnihotri, and mine Virwani. So, I got saved a little bit. Of course, people have time and again said ‘it must have been easy for you, you are entitled’ this and that. I say ‘I don’t even need to give you a response, everybody knows my journey’. If that was the case, I would have had a Dharma or big banner launch.”

Virwani reasons his first film, Luv U Soniyo (2013) was with a small producer. “I worked my way up. My journey’s truth lies in the projects I choose, or rather they chose me. I don’t think I need to just add something to this unnecessary fire,” he tells us.

On what does he feel about this entire debate, the actor says it’s not just now, it’s been there for a long time.

“It rears it’s head when something new happens. I am not going to be hypocritical and say nepotism, groupism, favouritism, camps and all don’t exist. But, you tell me, which industry does not have that? Tomorrow, a real estate tycoon would want his son to get the best, so would any government official. There’s nothing wrong in trying to give your kids, who are the love of your life. Having said that, at the end of the day the audience is jury and executioner, they either accept you with open rms, or reject you, be it a newcomer, Khan or Kapoor’s film,” Virwani argues.

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