September 01, 2026

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Premium

Vikrant Massey Is Finding His Way Home

There is a particular kind of relief that comes with watching Vikrant Massey on screen. I say this to him almost as a sheepish confession: that I came to our interview having just binge-watched Musafir Cafe mid-way through what I can only describe as a full-blown crime fatigue, courtesy of my father's subscription to every OTT platform on the planet. “Watch this instead,” he'd said. I did, and cried. Tears of joyous relief, if I may add. As it turns out, Massey understands this fatigue better than most others. Musafir Cafe, Netflix's slow-burning, deeply-felt romance, is a lot more than just another anticipated release for the National Award winning actor. At 39, it's his first work as a producer, made under his newly minted banner, Homemade Stories. And, it arrives on the back of his critically lauded performance in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's National Award winning 12th Fail (2023) and a recent laugh-out-loud turn in Avinash Arun's cybercrime comedy Pritam and Pedro. Somewhere in the middle of all this, Massey also became a father, took a self-imposed break from the brouhaha of his celluloid life, and rediscovered his undying love for the mountains. Ask Massey why Musafir Cafe, and the reply is unrehearsed. “The answer is in your question itself,” he says, showing a rare ability to parse through interview questions that takes me by surprise. “Like you said yourself, it's a beautiful story and is that not reason enough to do something?” Created by Sharanya Rajgopal and directed by Ruchir Arun, Massey was approached to be a part of the project as an actor, at almost the exact moment when he'd spent over a year preparing to produce something of his own. NEW, REAL WORLD The series follows Preeti and Chander—and, in an earlier timeline, Sudha and Chander—two relationships that mirror and refract each other across time. He doesn't shy away from how messy that mirroring is. “It's a very complicated relationship, like most relationships are,” he says. “Despite being the one that unfolds over cute, whimsical flashbacks, Sudha and Chander's relationship is not without its complications. But that's how it is, and we just wanted to reflect what most people have been through.” He credits the show's old-world tenderness, a kind of unhurried, ache-in-the-quiet-moments romance Hindi screens used to specialise in, largely to his collaborators. Homemade Stories, I tell him, has an almost maternal warmth to its name that's hard to miss. Massey in turn laughs. “That's really sweet of you. I wanted to tell stories that resonate with people without complicating matters. My motto has always been, less is more. Cut the frills, the superfluous, and just keep it as simple as possible.” It is an exciting venture in a space with a successful history of actors turning to production, in a bid to champion independent storytelling. Case in point: Anushka Sharma's Clean Slate Films which bankrolled a series of experimental feminist horror films, and Alia Bhatt's more recent Eternal Sunshine Productions that has backed female-led action thrillers. But, as for the genres Homemade Stories will dabble in, Massey's answer is deliberately non-committal. “There are certain strengths every creative has, but I would not want to restrict myself to them, because it's an ever-evolving market,” he says. “The idea is to go out there and tell good stories that are worth people's time and money.” FINDING HIS VOICE We inevitably circle back to 12th Fail—the film that, as Massey admits, was “a major turning point” in his career. From being the spoilt, hopelessly romantic South Delhi

Flaws and All

If you want to know what everyone's into these days, what causes they are fighting for, insecurities they are harbouring, things they are calling "chic", or how spectacularly wrong they are about being "whimsical", Instagram is the place to be. I stalk everyone there. You don't have to be my friend for me to notice that you unfollowed Lena Dunham. Call me nosy, I like to think of myself as a social anthropologist.But lately my feed is so full of images I can't tell are real or AI that the daily stalk is no longer fun (falling for Dua Lipa's AI-generated wedding pictures was my last straw). I've lost the right to mock those who fall for WhatsApp forwards. Glass houses...Except somewhere under all this AI slop, a counter-trend seems to be taking shape: the anti-AI aesthetic. Anyone can look flawless online now, living their most algorithm-approved life, all thanks to artificial intelligence. So what's actually rare is proof that you didn't use it-- evidence that you don't mind being imperfect, which is to say, evidence that you are human.The anti-AI aesthetic, then, is anything that looks like a human was actively involved in its making, not just in typing out a prompt. Take the Instagram photo dump, which emerged in 2020 and has since become one of the most common formats of posting online that shows a life lived. A half-eaten cinnamon roll, wired earphones tangled up with your favourite lipstick, the book you are reading on your way to work, a night out with friends, a what's-inmy-bag, a picture of your stuff piled in the sink, a selfie. The whole point of a "dump" is that it is supposed to be intimate, unedited, unplanned, and curated, but just enough to make it look like it wasn't. It has to have no sign of AI, of course. Photo dumps on Instagram now are much like salt to a meal; unremarkable when present, devastating without. But I digress.KEEP IT REAL Earlier this year, The Business of Fashion reported how luxury beauty brands and influencers have jumped the "cluttercore" bandwagon and "products strewn across the sink, half-empty or in cluttered piles, have replaced picture-perfect shelfies." Brands like MERIT Beauty, Dieux Skin, and Glossier have leaned into the trend and taken to posting product shots that look used, beat-up, and lived-in. Even Apple put out a behind-the-scenes video of the making of their MacBook Neo without using AI, and they made sure everyone knew.Fashion has caught on too. While Khaite's S/S 2027 show broke away from the clean girl aesthetic and slick-back hair, Prada's A/W 2026 show had models walking down the runway with unkempt hair and smudged makeup. And who can forget the smokey eyes and that controversial `heroin chic' aesthetic of the 90s at Demna's first Gucci show for fall 2026. While at Junya Watanabe, streaming black eye makeup was proof that a night was had. TikTok and later Instagram's fascination with American filmmaker Sofia Coppola's workspace also shows the generation's preference for a chaotic (and therefore, anti-AI) aesthetic.And brands understand that trust runs on authenticity, and authenticity is one thing AI can't fake. It might be coming for our jobs (hurry, please), but it still can't be vulnerable on command. And while perfectionism isn't always indicative of AI, it sure raises the question. As for my feed, I've gotten good at spotting and skipping every AI post coming my way, and gone right back to my stalking. Old habits, and all that.