India, April 12 -- Actor Vijay Varma, who found success later in his career, says the journey wasn't without long periods of struggle. Despite attending the Cannes Film Festival early on, he recalls sitting idle for years before Gully Boy (2019) changed things for him. Vijay, who is currently awaiting the release of his web series Matka King, opened up about those years in a conversation with PTI. "The first festival I went to was Cannes with Monsoon Shootout (2017), before anything had released. I couldn't have had a bigger dhamaka than that, but after this, I was sitting idle for many years," he said. A Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) graduate, Vijay went on to do small roles in films such as Pink (2016), Raag Desh (2017), Manto (2018) and Middle Class Abbayi (2017), before gaining attention with his part in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy. However, even after that, he found himself battling typecasting. "From having no work to doing smaller roles and then being restricted to them, it was hard to break out. I was often offered parts like a friend giving a high five to the hero. Then came a big villain role, and I was boxed into that too. I'm like, 'I'm bigger than this, I can do more,'" he said. "Every time someone tries to put me in a cage or a mould, my instinct is to break out of it," he added. PTI...