Mumbai: Actor Vivek Oberoi rose to fame after his love saga ‘Saathiya’, opposite Rani Mukherjee, worked wonders at the box-office.
However, despite the success of his films such as ‘Company’, ‘Saathiya’, ‘Dum’ and others, the actor went through a scary phase when he was out of work for nearly 15 months.
It made him realise that Bollywood is an ‘insecure place’ where lobbying exists and he didn’t want his future to be in dark because of that.
That was the turning point in Vivek’s life as he decided to follow plan B and enter into business.
Talking about the dark side of the industry, Vivek said, “I have done about 67 projects in 22 years, but the industry is a very insecure place. You could be performing well, winning awards, and doing your job as an actor, but at the same time, you can get no work for other reasons. After 2007 when I did Shootout At Lokhandwala, the Ganpat song went viral, I won awards, so I expected a lot of offers, but I didn’t get any. I sat at home for 14 to 15 months after the success of the film. It was only around the 2009 mark when I decided I didn’t want to be completely dependent on this but build my economic independence. I didn’t want to be in a situation where a lobby could decide your future. Somebody could bully you into doing something because they controlled things.”
“Business was always a Plan B, and I decided cinema will be my passion. My livelihood should be my business, which helped me earn my independence and get out of that whole trap of lobbies, or having to sell your soul or suck up to somebody that is no great way to live at least for me. Some people make a living out of it but for me, that’s not the case,” he added.
Although the actor is a successful businessman today, he is still a part of the industry and continues to act in films.
Vivek was last seen in Rohit Shetty’s web series ‘Indian Police Force’, which also featured Shilpa Shetty, Sidharth Malhotra, Sharad Kelkar and Shweta Tiwari.
The actor will next be seen in ‘Masti 4’, the latest instalment of the comedy franchise, co-starring Riteish Deshmukh and Aftab Shivdasani.
