From playing the small but significant role of Alia Bhatt’s Pakistani husband in Raazi, which was essentially driven by the heroine, to leading the charge in the same filmmaker Meghna Gulzar’s Sam Bahadur is the story of Vicky Kaushal’s success in a nutshell.

With every filmmaker and actor wanting to promote his film differently, Yash Raj Films did something that Salman Khan had attempted before the release of Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan. Aditya Chopra’s banner got the media to have an informal chat with Vicky minutes after watching the trailer of his new film The Great Indian Family. It was done neatly with people going into the preview theatre as they arrived, the trailer screened at regular intervals for each batch. In the foyer, the Chopra family’s famous hospitality was also played on a loop, the food and beverage counters replenished non-stop. It worked well to grab a coffee, go in after gulping it (no eats and drinks inside the theatre), watch the promo, catch Vicky for a quick chat and step out for a leisurely bite.

Salman had done that before the release of his film, chatting with one and all with great abandon even as his North-South food counters (reflective of the mix in his film) were busy feeding everybody.

In Vicky’s case, it was he himself who reflected the mood of his film. With anecdotes about Katrina (who likes him with his beard) and his mother (who works as his barometer to gauge a film’s audience friendliness), it was Vicky’s own Indian family that was the centrepiece of his conversation. Clever.

However, the overt comic flavour of The Great Indian Family that’s around the corner couches a familiar theme. Of a bhajan-spouting Hindu family reacting to, OMG, a Muslim kid in the family. It’s been the leitmotif of many a film in the past. Although Tumko Na Bhool Paayenge (2002) was more a story of crime than of religious fervour, Salman had played a hero named Veer who discovers that he was Ali, a fugitive who’d lost his memory. But Paresh Rawal’s Dharam Sankat Mein (2015) had bigotry at its core with a fanatical Hindu finding out that he was a Muslim by birth. Yash Chopra’s own Dharm Putra (1961) had centred around Hindu fundamentalism with Shashi Kapoor as a Muslim-hating extremist who learns that he’s the illegitimate child of a Muslim neighbour. It was a reversal of Yash Chopra’s debut film Dhool Ka Phool (1959), which told the story of a Muslim bringing up an illegitimate Hindu child. It had the timeless song, Tu Hindu banega ya Musalman banega, insaan ki aulad hai, insaan banega.

From 1959 to 2023, the Hindu-Muslim conundrum has, therefore, remained a Yash Raj favourite, resold in different flavours.

But to return to Vicky, opposites do attract. Vicky’s paratha-level earthiness contrasts with the snootiness of his spouse Katrina Kaif. Cabin crew members are said to groan when Katrina is on the flight manifesto because she’s so disdainful of conversations with ordinary folk like air hostesses. It’s hilarious when crew members recount that if they ask her what she’d like to be served, Katrina will turn to her manager, always seated beside her on flights, and instruct her on what to tell the crew. The manager, in turn, will answer the air hostess on Katrina’s behalf; all talk to be only via the manager.

Fortunately, Vicky talks to everybody. The 6-foot-2-inch actor who shaved his beard and sported only the famous army moustache for Meghna Gulzar’s Sam Bahadur, the biopic on Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, is getting to be quite the go-to actor for substantial biographies. And to think he was only the Gujju sidekick in Sanju, Raju Hirani’s biopic on Sanjay Dutt, just five years ago.

All of 81 kilos when he wrapped up his act as Maneckshaw in March, Vicky is currently a muscle-heavy 100 kilos. He goes straight from The Great Indian Family to report as Shivaji’s son Sambhaji Maharaj for Laxman Utekar’s Chhawa.

“I’ve put on 19 kilos for the role because I didn’t want Laxman to take me lightly,” wisecracked Vicky. Considering the heavyweights he’s getting to play, no one will take Vicky Kaushal lightly anymore.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author