Vikrant Massey and the Appeal of the Relatable Lead
Vikrant Massey built a career on ordinary-man roles, from television to 12th Fail. What his record says about his rise and his range.
Not every screen star is built on glamour. Vikrant Massey's career has been built on the opposite: roles audiences recognise from ordinary life. This piece follows his published biography from television soaps to a National Film Award, and records where critics were less kind.
Mumbai childhood, dance and television
According to his Wikipedia biography, Massey was born on 3 April 1987 in Mumbai to a Sikh mother and a Christian father, and belongs to a middle-class family originally from Shimla. He attended St. Anthony's High School in Versova and R. D. National College in Bandra. A trained contemporary and jazz dancer who has worked with Shiamak Davar, he began performing in small dance and theatre shows at the age of seven.
His acting debut came on television in Dhoom Machaao Dhoom (2007). He followed it with Dharam Veer, Balika Vadhu, in which he played the supportive husband Shyam Singh, and Qubool Hai. In a 2011 Hindustan Times poll on "The Next Big Thing" among television actors, his was the only male name picked by all three judges.
A slow move to films
His Hindi film debut was a supporting role in Vikramaditya Motwane's Lootera (2013), where Taran Adarsh found him "first-rate". He appeared in Zoya Akhtar's Dil Dhadakne Do (2015) and had his first lead in Konkona Sen Sharma's A Death in the Gunj (2017), which brought a Filmfare Critics nomination. Streaming followed: Mirzapur, Broken But Beautiful, Criminal Justice and Made in Heaven. [Scroll.in](http://Scroll.in)'s Sanjukta Sharma wrote of Criminal Justice that he "slips into Aditya's skin without any effort showing".
Some films did not land. Chhapaak (2020), in which he played an activist beside Deepika Padukone, was a commercial failure despite positive reviews, and Gaslight (2023) received mixed to negative reviews.
12th Fail
The turning point was 12th Fail (2023), Vidhu Vinod Chopra's drama based on Manoj Kumar Sharma, who overcame extreme poverty to become an IPS officer. The biography notes that the film became a sleeper hit, grossing over Rs 66 crore worldwide, and won him the National Film Award for Best Actor, shared with Shah Rukh Khan for Jawan, plus the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor. Hindustan Times called it his "career-best".
The media image
The biography's section on his artistry quotes critics on a consistent theme. Film Companion noted he has made a mark "regardless of the scope, nature or length of a role", and The Telegraph's Priyanka Roy called him a rare performer who doesn't shun smaller parts even after moving to lead roles. Outlook's Prateek Sur and The New Indian Express's Kartik Bhardwaj both stress relatability. In his own career this shows as roles such as an engineer, a reporter and a photojournalist rather than a conventional hero.
Setbacks and a pause
Blackout (2024) received negative reviews, with critics unhappy with his performance, and The Sabarmati Report drew mixed to negative notices. Even so he was honoured with the IFFI Indian Film Personality of the Year Award at the 55th International Film Festival of India in 2024. In December 2024 he announced a career hiatus on Instagram, saying he wanted to focus on his family. In 2025 he appeared in Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan, which underperformed commercially, and in the Netflix series Musafir Cafe.
Personal life
He married the actress Sheetal Thakur in February 2022, and they have a son born in February 2024. He enjoys travelling, playing cricket and video games.
Sources
*Cover photo: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, Wikimedia Commons (GODL-India).*