When I decided to do ‘Saathiya’, people told me it would be a career killer and that I was crazy: Vivek Oberoi

20/04/2021

Vivek Oberoi refused the big launch planned by his father, dropped his last name for auditions, and jumped out of his comfort zone for the most unexpected debut as ‘Chandu’ in Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Company’.
After a massively successful maiden film, Vivek continued to entertain fans in more ways than one--from the charming Aditya in ‘Saathiya’, to the fierce Maya bhai in ‘Shootout At Lokhandwala’. Vivek Oberoi, who completed nearly two decades in Bollywood, opens up about his captivating journey, career ups and downs, and the lessons that he learned along the way! Excerpts:
You entered Bollywood with the gangster drama ‘Company’. How was the big debut planned?
Now, nepotism is a big word, but back in the day, it was very normal for every film guy of the second or third generation to be launched by his dad and for me also, it was the same. Son has returned from New York, let’s launch him--there was this whole setup with Abbas-Mustan. It was all going solid but in the middle of that, I had this crisis of conscience. My dad is my idol and he came in and made it purely on merit, no last name, nobody writing any kind of letters for him. He just auditioned and made it. And I said, I want to do it the same way. And the thought I had was that if something goes wrong with this film, my dad's life savings were on the line. And I'd seen a lot of people doing the same thing and going bust. So for me, it was very scary. And I just had these sleepless nights and I went to my dad and said, ‘I can't do the film, I'll struggle like you’, and he said, ‘but I built a platform, so you don't have to struggle!’ A few weeks later, I met Abbas-Mustan, apologised to them saying I will not be doing their film.
So, how did ‘Company’ happen? I struggled for a-year-and-half, went to every single studio, and auditioned across the board, dropped my last name because I didn't want anybody to know that I was Suresh Oberoi’s son. And the one thing that I realised is that you get a lot of free advice in India and most of the time it's useless. So, I saw many people telling me don't become an actor, give up it's a terrible career or you don't belong here, or you can never be an actor--a lot of statements like that. So, I kind of had my own version of Arya Stark's diary, I used to write down all the names of people and would tell myself, ‘One day, this guy will come to my house to sign me’. So, I went through all of that, and then I found out that RGV was casting for this film. I was a huge fan of his work. During my college days, I was also working as a dubbing artist--which is how I earned my pocket money--so I had also dubbed for ‘Satya’ in English. That's how I first met him but it was only later that he met me as an actor. However, he didn't remember me then.
When ‘Company’ released, everyone loved your gangster avatar, and with ‘Saathiya’ you were the hero that everyone wanted to date. So with every film was the pressure mounting to perform differently?
Well, actually it was really funny, because when I made a decision to do ‘Saathiya’, everyone, including my mentor RGV, was really upset and told me that it was a terrible decision. They told me it's a career killer and that I was crazy. I had just established myself as a man's man and people advised me to continue doing action movies. But I was an actor. I just wanted to do every different colour of cinema. ‘Saathiya’, to me, was a really interesting challenge. Shaad (Ali) and I have been friends for eons and suddenly he told me that I had to do a film with him. I saw the original, spoke to Mani sir and that was it! Post the success of ‘Saathiya’, it was very different because then everybody started saying, ‘Oh wow, you've done this, now only do love stories, don’t do anything else’. The perception, until then, was that this one guy does one kind of cinema, the other guy does the other kind of cinema. You don't mix the two. But I didn't want to bind myself in a stereotype. And I really enjoyed coming out from an extreme character like ‘Chandu’ to playing Aditya in ‘Saathiya’, which was even more difficult because there was no homework I could do.
Is there any movie that you regret turning down?
In the early stages, yes, there were a few I couldn't end up doing. But I guess every actor has these films in his career, which he ends up not doing and somebody else does. In my case, I also got the benefit of other actors not doing those roles. For both ‘Company’ and ‘Saathiya’, I was not the first choice. So, that helped me make my career too. Such things happen in the industry all the time.
If you had to pick one best performance and one terrible performance from your career, which ones would that be?
I can't say which is my best performance because, in different zones, I've enjoyed different roles. To me, I did a Malayalam film called ‘Lucifer’, opposite the legendary Mohanlal and it was so difficult because it was so subtle and I had to be this guy who was the hero of his own movie. In his own world, Bobby, my character, is right in everything that he does. On the outside, he was so easy, charming, and relaxed, but on the inside, he was so messed up and twisted. And that was an interesting journey for me to do it, especially for the language and to be able to match up with the legendary Mohanlal and then to win awards for it. Malayalam cinema is very evolved, they are very superior in terms of their quality of cinema. So, to go there and to perform like that, it's one of those performances that I've really enjoyed. And then, in Hindi, I think a film like ‘Shootout At Lokhandwala’ was interesting for me because it was a blend between larger-than-life and real, swagger, emotions, attitude.
Doing the attitude and not coming across as filmy was the tough part, and I think that really worked for me! As for terrible movies, I've done quite a few roles that I've hated, and felt that I shouldn't have done.
‘Kismat Love Paisa Dilli’ with Mallika (Sherawat) tops the list; I should’ve never done that film (laughs).

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