Vikrant Massey A Right-Wing Icon Now?
Since his upcoming film The Sabarmati Report’s promotions kickstarted, lead actor Vikrant Massey has generated a certain curiosity and growing amount of criticism for his remarks in a series of recent interviews.
During promotions of the drama thriller, which follows the aftermath of the 2002 Godhra train burning incident, Massey called the incident “our 9/11,” which “changed our socio-political fabric overnight,” referring to the New York attacks on September 11, 2001.
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More recently, during a podcast interview with journalist and Internet personality Sushant Sinha, who is known for his right-wing beliefs, a snippet of Massey stated, “We got so-called independence in 1947.” Calling it a “colonial hangover,” the actor emphasised, “Aaj jo Hindu hai woh ab usko finally jaake ek position mili hai jaahe pe woh apne identity ki maang rakh raha hai apne hi desh mein (Today, the Hindu has finally found a position where he is demanding his identity in his own country).”
Hailing from a middle-class family from Shimla, Massey was born and raised in Maharashtra’s Mumbai. Interestingly, the actor comes from a wide variety of religious backgrounds. His mother follows Sikhism, while his father is a churchgoing Christian. His older brother, Moeen, converted to Islam at the age of 17.
He stepped into the world of theatre at the age of 7 and made his acting debut in 2007 on television. He came to become a relatively known face through his roles as Vibha Anand in Balika Vadhu and Ayyaan Ahmed Khan in Qubool Hai, among others.
The former television actor finally made his Hindi film debut in Vikramaditya’s Motwane’s 2013 Lootera alongside Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha. In 2015, he joined the ensemble cast of Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do. Since then, Massey went on to show his acting prowess in critically acclaimed films such as A Death In The Gunj (2017), Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016), Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi (2019), and Netflix’s Haseen Dilruba (2021).
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Massey rose to popularity after his 2023 Vidhu Vinod Chopra directorial 12th Fail became a sleeper hit and garnered rave reviews from audiences as well.
Reflecting on his rich and diverse family background in Unfiltered with Samdish, the actor said that he went on his own journey of questioning religion as a “man-made” concept.
Massey has long called himself a BJP critic. Back in 2018, the Mirzapur actor posted a cartoon featuring Lord Rama and Sita reading a newspaper filled with headlines of rape crimes. Sita tells Lord Rama, “I’m so glad I was kidnapped by Ravan and not by your bhakts.” Posting the cartoon, Massey wrote, “Half baked potatoes and half baked nationalists will only cause a pain in the gut,” with the hashtags Kathua Case, Unnao, and Shame.
Years later, when the tweet resurfaced after his fame and received criticism by some, Massey apologised for the post and expressed that his intention was to never hurt, malign, or disrespect the Hindu community.
Describing his political journey, in an interview with Shubhankar Mishra on YouTube, the Sector 36 actor stated, “Ek right-ideology hai. There is a definitive right in this country that is proud of its culture, heritage, and history. Over a period of time, through my travels, I have seen that there is a definite right but there is an anti-right. I don’t see a left anymore.”
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Massey is clear where he stands: “I’m still a secular person. I’m still a liberal.” Emphasising the extremities of ideologies, left and right, which are much more dangerous, Massey talks of a more “centrist” and “neutral” stance, which, according to him, is not seen or heard nowadays.
“Aaj mujhe aisa lagta hai ki theek hai. It’s not as bad as I thought it was. Log kehte hai, ‘Hindu khatre mein hai,’ mujhe nahi lagta hindu khatre mein hai. Log kehte hai, ‘Musalmaan khatre mein hai.’ Koi khatre mein nahi hai. Sab sahi chal raha hai. This is the best country in the world (Today I feel that it is okay. It is not as bad as I thought it was. People say ‘Hindus are in danger,’ I do not think they are. People say ‘Muslims are in danger,’ but no one is in danger. Everything is going well),” stated Massey.
Meanwhile, Massey’s remarks have led many to wonder what happened to the actor. Some equated the actor to Kangana Ranaut, referring to her claim that India received independence after 2014 with Narendra Modi becoming the Prime Minister of the country. An X user stated, “Such a steep fall for this actor, who now has the audacity to insult all the freedom fighters who fought for Indian independence.”
Abhishek Banerjee, popularly known as The DeshBhakt, summed up a few reasons behind the sudden tonal shift in Massey. “Well Massey is just trying his best to save himself from another flop,” he said, referring to actor Ranvir Shorey’s 2024 release titled Godhra (also based on the same subject) and its extremely poor reception—both critically and commercially.
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Banerjee observed, “Now Vikrant has The Sabarmati Report coming out in theaters on the SAME topic and he knows that NOTHING can save the movie besides some good old liberal outrage and massive push from the RW (right-wing) system. This model used to work earlier (remember The Kerala Story?) but has run out of steam once people realised the pattern of exploiting Hindu religious sentiments for profit.”
