Vivek Oberoi clocks 20 years in Bollywood: One producer told me I don’t have the looks to be an actor

Vivek Oberoi’s ride in Bollywood has been quite bumpy, from giving a hit one year to sitting at home jobless next year. As he completes two decades in the industry, the actor is glad that he held onto his conviction, and belief in himself.

“It has been a journey full of ups and downs. But I still feel like that same child who first stood on the stage at the age of five at a function in school, and just fell in love with that experience of a live performance,” Oberoi tells us.

He entered the industry as a gangster in Ram Gopal Varma’s Company, which released on April 12, 2002. The actor put down a chance to get launched by his father, Suresh Oberoi, in an Abbas–Mustan project, opting to struggle his way through the industry.

“My dad was putting all his life’s earnings on my debut film, which was unacceptable to me. But I wanted a job on my own merit rather than my last name because my father also didn’t find his way with sifarish and struggled for 18-29 months,” says the 45-year-old.

That was the time when he saw the “ugly dark side of Bollywood”. The Saathiya (2002) actor elaborates, “The rejection here is so personal. When people think you are struggler with no connection, they just tell you all kinds of stuff, which is very personal. They said I can’t be an actor… but everything which broke me, made me stronger, which set the tone of my 20 years in the industry.”

Asked what did people tell him and he recounts, “I remember one particular producer made me sit outside his office for eight-nine hours. After three days, he called me to his office, looked at me, and without looking at my work or certificates, showed me a photo of somebody, and said ‘Yeh hota hai hero, tum mein woh baat nahi hai. Tum kabhi nahi bann paoge. I was really hurt.

The actor goes on to say that he celebrated his “personal victory” when the same producer came to his house and offered him a film.

Vivek reveals the producer didn’t even recognise him, or anything about that incident. “That’s maybe because he met so many people every day. But to me, that was a very big personal victory,” says the actor.

Today, he is credited for projects such as Omkara (2006), Shootout at Lokhandwala (2007), Krrish 3 (2013) and web series Inside Edge.

Looking back at his journey, he admits, “I have nothing but gratitude. There was a time when I gave hits, won awards and then sat at home for one and half years. Nobody wanted to work with me. I was told I will never get work in the industry again, no matter how you perform to be at the position where I am today. The journey is filled with gratitude… And I still have miles to go before I sleep.”