‘Munjya’ hero Abhay Verma used to work for 800 rupees per day, told whom he/she loves

Abhay Verma, who started his/her career with small roles, also worked in many ad films. Abhay, who came to Mumbai from Panipat, was noticed in series like ‘Family Man’. After the challenging role of a transgender in ‘Safed’, these days he/she is being liked as Bittu in ‘Munjya’. A conversation with him/her.

I love my mother passionately

After his/her film Safed, in ‘Munjya’ too Abhay is playing a character who does a lot for love. Defining love he/she says, ‘Where there is love, the most precious thing is concern. I feel, where there is no concern, there will be no love. I cannot relate myself to the love of today, instant love. I believe in spiritual love. For me love is above physicality and in today’s era love ends after reaching the body. The spirituality and spiritual aspect that should be there in love, seems to be missing to me these days. Passionate love is yet to come in my life in human terms. But I love my mother to the extent of passion. I also have a crazy love for cinema.’

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I didn’t have the money to go to acting school.

Talking about his/her background and passion for acting, he/she says, ‘I am from a small town in Haryana’s Panipat. I always wanted to act. But our financial condition was not such that I could get admission in any acting school or institute. For me, the first school of acting was my life. Talking about films, the journey of megastar Bachchan sahab from ‘Saat Hindustani’ to ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ was a training procedure for me. I kept learning from Paresh Rawal sahab’s acting.’

‘I used to stand in line for 800 rupees’

Abhay Verma in the movie ‘White’

Abhay further said, ‘I started my career with small roles. I used to be a junior artist in ‘Super 30’ and you know that on the set, the junior artist gets his/her per day’s pay last, so when I used to stand in that line to get my daily pay of Rs 800, even then I am not talking big, I used to think in my mind that Abhay, you are standing in the line right now, but you are not here for this. You have come to do something big in the industry. I have also faced a lot of rejections, but I had decided that from the opportunities I got, I will choose something in which I can shine with my hard work. I started working with ad films and then I got a good role in ‘Family Man’, then I became a transgender in white. I waited for a whole year for the role of ‘Munjya’.

Abhay spoke on different characters in films

In his/her previous film ‘Safed’, Abhay played a transgender, while in ‘Munjya’ he/she plays a modern-day boy who fights ghosts. Talking about the transformation in his/her roles, he/she says, “I lived the transgender in ‘Safed’ with the same intensity. Although when that role came to me, many people had refused it, I was also a little hesitant, but when I did that role, I put my heart and soul into it. I am proud of that role. We all enjoyed ‘Munjya’ a lot. As far as transformation is concerned, Bittu is a cute, innocent character, unlike the eunuch in ‘Safed’, which I really enjoyed playing.”

We were all scared at 3 am.

Abhay Varma in ‘Munjya’

A strange thing used to happen on the set of ‘Munjya’. We were all shooting. At night, we were sleeping after completing the shooting. The next day when we all woke up in the morning, we discussed at the breakfast table that my eyes opened at three in the night and when I told this to everyone, Sharvari (film’s heroine Sharvari Wagh) and Mona ma’am (Mona Singh) also said that their eyes had also opened at three and they too had felt something strange and scary. Then two-three more people on the set told about their experience of opening their eyes at three in the night and feeling something different.

Manoj sir said, I should believe in myself

Sharing his/her experience with Manoj Bajpayee in ‘Family Man’, he/she says, ‘As we all know, he/she is an institute of acting for all of us. The biggest thing in acting is to make your co-actor feel comfortable. Manoj ji is a very big veteran actor. The day I started shooting on the sets of ‘Family Man’, the way a big actor like him/her made me feel comfortable on the set was a big thing. I consider myself very lucky that I started my career with him/her. he/she creates such a comfort zone on the set that the actor in front can also perform. he/she assured me that I should believe in myself and my character.’