Vinay plays 'Bheja Fry' in real life!

By: Praveen Lance Fernandes, IndiaFM
Friday, April 13, 2007
Bheja Fry - an interesting title and even more interesting is the plotline. A group of sadists play a game where they each invite fools over for dinner and the person who gets the biggest 'duh' wins.

We already introduced you to the main 'duh' of the film. But Vinay Pathak wasn't finished. Though he enacts the role of a simpleton in the film, the talented actor is far from it in real life.

"I'm a meathead. I can't help it, man. You've got smart people and you've got dumb people." - Keanu Reeves
You can place Vinay Pathak in the latter category. Vinay recalls an incident from his college days where he conceptualized and executed a sinister plan against a fellow student. Here it from Vinay himself.

"I used to live in a hostel during college. There was some kind of unrest in the little town I stayed in and so all the students of the hostel were asked to evacuate except for the students who had to appear for their exams. I was appearing for my 12th grade exams. So there was just my batch and nobody else in the hostel. Because of the unrest in the area one student named Shyam was killed," says the actor.

A practical joke set amidst a college setting in a small town and which involves a dead body. Sounds like an ideal film plot. "Yes, it can be made into a movie," laughs off the actor.

He continues, "We were studying for our final exams and it was in the hilly area of Jharkand which is kind of spooky in the night. There were rumors going around that people had seen the ghost the Shyam, the boy who was killed. There was word about how the lock of his room was moving on its own, etc. It was 11pm and everybody was studying. All of a sudden the electricity went off and everybody started studying under candle light. A mischievous thought occurred to me and I told Kushna to take all his clothes off and strip to his underwear." Murder and now stripping. The film just might turn out to be a Z-grader.

"No, no. there's more to it," Vinay defends. "Kushna and I decided to pull a prank on this harmless, sweet but frail guy names Mumtaj. I was good friends with him and he seemed like a nice target."

The Mumtaj of all pranks
"There was a black carpet which was used for a college function and so I wrapped that around him all over to his head. Then I took the part of the fan which looks like a cup and I put it upside down on Kushna's head and put a candle in its hole and lit it. The idea was to scare the frail guy. So I took Kushna slowly to his room and it was difficult for him to move in my 'creative costume'.

We knew Mumtaj was studying inside so I knocked on the door. I ran back to my room while Kushna stood put. The boy opened the door all he could see was a lit candle and bright white teeth."

Ramsay in the making
"This guy screamed and started jumping on all his room-mates. He actually screamed, 'arey main mar gaya re, Shyam bahar khada hai.' Kushna and I went back to our room laughing. After five minutes of non-stop laughing, we pretended to go back to sleep. What was even funny was that all of his room-mates were now scared and were holding each other's hands and came out to investigate. We decided not to say anything then."

Ghost Ghost Naa Raha
"Next morning one of Mumtaj's room-mate comes to me and says that the boy is unwell and he has 102 degrees fever. I went to him and he narrated the story to me shivering. He was convinced that he saw the deceased guy. It was in his head that he spoke to him saying, "hi Mumtaj, kaise ho?" In his simple mind, this thing went out of hand. I told him that someone must have pulled a prank and he replied saying that he would know a prank when he would see one. So I decided to twist the tale and told him that Shyam came to him to give him his blessings and didn't mean him any harm. But nothing helped, and next day his situation deteriorated and he couldn't write his exams."

Breaking News
"And within a week, news spread that this student's ghost is going around and haunting hostel students. And to top it all, this third guy who was never in the hostel, but just used to visit us during the day time made it his story by telling a local magazine on how he helped Mumtaj by scaring the ghost away. So other people were taking credit for nothing."

Kal Ke Dost, Aaj Ke Dushman
"Years later I met Mumtaj at a bus-stop. I saw him and I was very happy and so I rushed to him. He saw me and stood cold. Then he told me that he came to know of the whole incident. Apparently Kushna had confided this incident to another guy and the other guy went and told him. Mumtaj told me that I ruined his career and that he doesn't go to college anymore. He is sitting at his dad's shop. I still felt very shitty about it but I told him that maybe he was destined to do that and he shouldn't blame it on me."

So don't be fooled by his innocent looks. A devil in disguise is what one can call Vinay Pathak. In Bheja Fry he will just have a reversal of roles.

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