Actor turned businessman Vivek Oberoi It has made headlines recently. Earlier last week, his net worth was calculated at Rs 1200 crore which made many wonder how the actor achieved this. In an exclusive interview with SCREEN, Vivek Oberoi opened up about how he started the business early in his career after being ignored by Bollywood lobbies. In the interview, Vivek also revealed how he doesn’t want to take the easy route in the industry like other star kids. He walked out of his father Suresh Oberoi’s film and struggled for 18 months before getting a role in the company for which he was initially rejected.
Talking about his childhood, Vivek recalled, “I was a very good student, winning awards, entering state and national level competitions, I was a perfect match for that too. I had a mind for mischievous jokes, so you couldn’t leave me alone. I told my teachers I joked, got in trouble, and got called to the principal’s office. My mom had a hard time, I used to drive my younger sister crazy.”
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Vivek also revealed about coming from a filmy family but taking an off-beat route. He said, ‘Both my parents came from highly educated families, father being the black sheep who decided to try his luck in acting. His parents wanted him to become a doctor or join an IIT, the typical Indian dream. Mom was very wary of hearing horror stories about kids being spoiled, drugged and dropping out of school, so it was a nightmare. He was more focused on me and my sister Meghna that we should study. Graduation was compulsory, it was non-negotiable, so we studied well. My mother always made sure we were on the right track. “
‘I walked out of the film my father made to start me off’
Vivek revealed that his father wanted to launch him in Bollywood, but he didn’t want to. He said, “When my father wanted to launch me, I had a crisis of conscience, I didn’t want my father to invest money to launch me, I wanted more merit. He was worried, but he respected me as a person that day. My father was making a film for me with Abbas Mastan and I walked away from that opportunity, then struggled for 18 months and faced a lot of rejection, but I am proud of that choice.
‘Ram Gopal Verma rejected me outright for the company’
Brought up in a filmy family, Vivek first dabbled in acting when he was five, it was a school play that gave him direction. By 11 he decided to be in front of the camera. He graduated from Trinity College London with a Masters in Cinema, and made his debut in 2002 with the company. But the actor revealed that he had to work hard to convince RGV to cast him in the film, and was initially turned down. Vivek says, “I went to meet Mr Verma, he saw my picture and rejected me outright. He said I looked brilliant, but I was very polished and well educated, so I didn’t fit the bill of this slumdog, Chandu. I recently asked him to give me a meeting and he said why, I know you don’t fit the part.
“He was traveling for three weeks so he asked me to meet him later. I didn’t go home from his office, I went straight to a nearby slum, got a room there, paid rent and moved in. I stayed there for 3 weeks and bought one of those Dictaphones. , and used to record how the boys spoke. I called a struggling photographer to help out and take some pictures Said if I do it, he will get to shoot the first cover I see. I finally got there dressed as the character, hoping he would give me an audition,” added Vivek.
Watch the trailer of Vivek Oberoi’s Dear Me… here:
He continued, “I went in wearing sandals, ill-fitting pants, a torn bra, lit the door with a bidi and opened the door. I went in with the window, pulled out a chair and sat down. I gave him a death stare and threw my pictures on his table. Then he got up and said I was doing a film. I was so scared wondering if he was testing me that I refused to leave the character. He then asked me to stop smoking in his office. It was my dream to work with Mr. Verma. Truth was one of my all time favorites. He was a great filmmaker, so it was a dream to be part of the company.
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‘I thought I would be fired on the first day of the company’s shoot’
He said, ‘I remember the first day of shooting. I was very nervous to act in front of Ajay Devgan. We are both giving each other that attitude. Mr. Varma quietly came in and said something in someone’s ear, something to Ajay next door. But he didn’t say anything to me, it happened a couple of times. I started feeling like I was out of the movie and she didn’t want to waste time on me. I couldn’t eat lunch and was looking at the ocean when he came in. He came to me and said if I don’t like what you are doing I will tell you, if I don’t tell you anything it means I like what you are doing. It gave me double the energy.
On the workfront, Vivek was last seen in Rohit Shetty’s Indian Police Force. After that, he is shooting for Masti 4 and also launching his lab-grown diamond brand Solitario. The actor has two more films in the pipeline.
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