“Why do men chop their hair as soon as it gets to the perfect length?” I ask The Archies’ fame Vedang Raina. His perfectly curled hair in the Zoya Akhtar directorial starring Suhana Khan, Khushi Kapoor, Agastya Nanda, Mihir Ahuja, Dot and Yuvraj Menda made waves along with his screen presence. Post-release, he made appearances in a crew cut. The newcomer laughs in response, coyly hinting at an upcoming project. “I was happy with the length of my hair. It was a huge part of Reggie’s character. Let’s just say it wasn’t by choice. Circumstances led to the chopping of the hair.”
The 28-year-old actor who played the role of Reggie Mantle in the Indian musical adaptation of the popular Archie comics is already speculated to be a part of Alia Bhatt’s upcoming film Jigra. Vedang doesn’t admit it, but he has garnered a fan following of his own. “So many people flooding me with messages is overwhelming. I don’t know if this is the case with every film. But at this point, I’m pretty much seeing a lot of comments and DMs, even though I haven’t been able to reply. I see people showing a lot of love and support and I’m extremely grateful for that,” he adds.
After the film’s release, netizens compared the newbie to a young Ranveer Singh. When asked about the flattering comparison, he quips, “Ranveer Singh is one of the finest actors today. I know the comparison is more of a visual resemblance. I have no right to be compared to someone like him who has proven himself time and again. But to be compared to him in any light is a great feeling. He’s fantastic. So I’m grateful, and I’m glad that people see something there.”
Recalling how he landed the role, Vedang revealed, “Three years ago, I gave two auditions and didn’t hear back from them for four months. I’d forgotten about the project. Then they sent me new scenes. Back then, I had tried for Archie, but they wanted to test me for another role.” He then found himself a nervous wreck in Zoya Akhtar’s office, unable to believe that he was about to land the role. The cast of the film went through months of intensive workshops for skating, dancing and fully immersing themselves in character.
“I was just out of college. So I took that time to understand the character because it was my first film and I realised it’s a mammoth task. I wanted to prove myself as a young, aspiring actor who wanted to make a point. I still have a couple of diaries in which I wrote down things that I see in Reggie, analysing and getting into the skin of the character.”
Vedang cites Elvis as an inspiration to nail the character’s period-appropriate style. “I hadn’t really done dancing before this film, so in the workshop phase, in my head, I’d become a professional dancer. I was obsessed with it. I used to watch dance videos from hit films every single night. I feel like for a couple of months straight, every single night I used to watch Elvis, Shammi Kapoor, John Travolta or even Patrick Swayze. It’s rock and roll. It’s not a modern kind of dance. So those aspects of it took a lot of time.”
Luckily, he had his co-stars to steady him. “The first day I met Agastya and Khushi was for a dance workshop. In my first interaction with them, I was a bit iffy because when I’m in a new social space, I don’t know how to start a conversation. I was a bit nervous. I remember I started talking to Khushi and it was quite a formal introduction, like which school you went to and how you’re doing. When Agastya came in, he instantly broke the ice. He’s like, ‘How are you doing? Give me a hug!’”
Opening up about a particularly moving scene between him and Yuvraj (Reggie and Dilton), where the latter confesses his romantic feelings for the former, revealing his sexuality, Raina explained, “It was the last scene of the day after a long day of shooting. The crew was small; it was dark and we were in the middle of some forest in a little house. These things just added to a different kind of feeling when we stepped on set. We barely spoke while they were setting up the shot, both in our own heads. Then something just clicked and it felt really magical. The first time I understood that people received that scene in a good way was when the film was screened in New York. Someone DM’d me on Instagram after seeing the premiere and she was like, ‘That scene really hit.’ And I remember calling Yuvraj and saying, ‘Remember when it felt special that day? Like something was different? It actually landed!’”
The film premiered on a star-studded screen where Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan were present with their entire families. Kajol, Hrithik Roshan, Ranveer Singh, and Ranbir Kapoor were also on the guest list. Vedang recalls feeling “starstruck to another level” and nervous with the industry’s stalwarts watching him perform on the big screen. “I didn’t know what I was doing there,” he admits. He did manage to sneak in an interaction with Hrithik. He says, “He came up to me and said, ‘fantastic performance,’ and I had nothing to say. Coming from him, it meant the world to me. I can’t believe he said that to me.”
A lot has changed for Vedang; he has, in his words, gone from auditioning for anything under the sun with no real choice to make to seeing possibilities. He says, full of hope, “Whatever you get, you go with it. But now it’s a bit different. Now there is a very public audition tape of mine for people to see. So I think they have something else to go off of. I’m meeting more people and I’m listening to more stories.
I wouldn’t say that I’m in a privileged place to be able to choose so many things. But that whole journey is changing. And that is also interesting. I think auditions will still keep coming and going. But it’s a little different now and people are approaching me in a different kind of light.” Let’s hope life let’s him keep jammin’ the way he wants to jam.
The 28-year-old actor who played the role of Reggie Mantle in the Indian musical adaptation of the popular Archie comics is already speculated to be a part of Alia Bhatt’s upcoming film Jigra. Vedang doesn’t admit it, but he has garnered a fan following of his own. “So many people flooding me with messages is overwhelming. I don’t know if this is the case with every film. But at this point, I’m pretty much seeing a lot of comments and DMs, even though I haven’t been able to reply. I see people showing a lot of love and support and I’m extremely grateful for that,” he adds.
After the film’s release, netizens compared the newbie to a young Ranveer Singh. When asked about the flattering comparison, he quips, “Ranveer Singh is one of the finest actors today. I know the comparison is more of a visual resemblance. I have no right to be compared to someone like him who has proven himself time and again. But to be compared to him in any light is a great feeling. He’s fantastic. So I’m grateful, and I’m glad that people see something there.”
Recalling how he landed the role, Vedang revealed, “Three years ago, I gave two auditions and didn’t hear back from them for four months. I’d forgotten about the project. Then they sent me new scenes. Back then, I had tried for Archie, but they wanted to test me for another role.” He then found himself a nervous wreck in Zoya Akhtar’s office, unable to believe that he was about to land the role. The cast of the film went through months of intensive workshops for skating, dancing and fully immersing themselves in character.
“I was just out of college. So I took that time to understand the character because it was my first film and I realised it’s a mammoth task. I wanted to prove myself as a young, aspiring actor who wanted to make a point. I still have a couple of diaries in which I wrote down things that I see in Reggie, analysing and getting into the skin of the character.”
Vedang cites Elvis as an inspiration to nail the character’s period-appropriate style. “I hadn’t really done dancing before this film, so in the workshop phase, in my head, I’d become a professional dancer. I was obsessed with it. I used to watch dance videos from hit films every single night. I feel like for a couple of months straight, every single night I used to watch Elvis, Shammi Kapoor, John Travolta or even Patrick Swayze. It’s rock and roll. It’s not a modern kind of dance. So those aspects of it took a lot of time.”
Luckily, he had his co-stars to steady him. “The first day I met Agastya and Khushi was for a dance workshop. In my first interaction with them, I was a bit iffy because when I’m in a new social space, I don’t know how to start a conversation. I was a bit nervous. I remember I started talking to Khushi and it was quite a formal introduction, like which school you went to and how you’re doing. When Agastya came in, he instantly broke the ice. He’s like, ‘How are you doing? Give me a hug!’”
Opening up about a particularly moving scene between him and Yuvraj (Reggie and Dilton), where the latter confesses his romantic feelings for the former, revealing his sexuality, Raina explained, “It was the last scene of the day after a long day of shooting. The crew was small; it was dark and we were in the middle of some forest in a little house. These things just added to a different kind of feeling when we stepped on set. We barely spoke while they were setting up the shot, both in our own heads. Then something just clicked and it felt really magical. The first time I understood that people received that scene in a good way was when the film was screened in New York. Someone DM’d me on Instagram after seeing the premiere and she was like, ‘That scene really hit.’ And I remember calling Yuvraj and saying, ‘Remember when it felt special that day? Like something was different? It actually landed!’”
The film premiered on a star-studded screen where Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan were present with their entire families. Kajol, Hrithik Roshan, Ranveer Singh, and Ranbir Kapoor were also on the guest list. Vedang recalls feeling “starstruck to another level” and nervous with the industry’s stalwarts watching him perform on the big screen. “I didn’t know what I was doing there,” he admits. He did manage to sneak in an interaction with Hrithik. He says, “He came up to me and said, ‘fantastic performance,’ and I had nothing to say. Coming from him, it meant the world to me. I can’t believe he said that to me.”
A lot has changed for Vedang; he has, in his words, gone from auditioning for anything under the sun with no real choice to make to seeing possibilities. He says, full of hope, “Whatever you get, you go with it. But now it’s a bit different. Now there is a very public audition tape of mine for people to see. So I think they have something else to go off of. I’m meeting more people and I’m listening to more stories.
I wouldn’t say that I’m in a privileged place to be able to choose so many things. But that whole journey is changing. And that is also interesting. I think auditions will still keep coming and going. But it’s a little different now and people are approaching me in a different kind of light.” Let’s hope life let’s him keep jammin’ the way he wants to jam.
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