‘Ungrateful’ Vivek Oberoi backed out of Shootout at Wadala, recalls Sanjay Gupta: ‘That’s where I lost it’

Sanjay Gupta said that he was very upset with Vivek Oberoi when he backed out of Shootout at Wadala at the insistence of a few people in Sanjay Dutt's team.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | January 25, 2024 01:05 PM IST

Vivek Oberoi in a still from Sanjay Gupta-produced Shootout at Lokhandwala.

Vivek Oberoi was going through a rather rough patch in his career when he landed the part of Maya Dolas in Sanjay Gupta-produced Shootout at Lokhandwala. But, a few years later, when Gupta wanted Oberoi to play a key role in his anthology film Dus Kahaniyaan, the actor refused. In a new interview, Gupta said that he found this action very “ungrateful” and decided not to work with him after that.

Talking to YouTuber Siddharth Kannan, Sanjay Gupta said that when Vivek refused to be a part of Dus Kahaniyaan, he “felt that at that moment in time, Vivek had been very ungrateful. All the actors agreed to be a part of Dus Kahaniyaan and Vivek was the only guy who said ‘my career is going in a certain way. I don’t think I should do an anthology. I didn’t say anything but I had made up my mind that now, I’ll stay away from that guy. I didn’t work with him after that.”

Many years later, when Sanjay was making Shootout at Wadala, Vivek suggested that they work together again but this time too, he backed out at the last moment. Gupta recalled that Oberoi came over to his house on Diwali and heard the narration of the film, and subsequently agreed to be a part of the film. “He got up and he hugged me. He had tears in his eyes and he said ‘I’m back home, I’m doing this film’,” he recalled.

ALSO READ | Fighter Review and Release Live Updates: Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone film early reviews are out, the film will make this much on day 1

After Gupta announced the film, Vivek backed out because apparently he got a few calls from Sanjay Dutt’s team. Gupta and Dutt were going through a rough patch following which Gupta had lost out on a lot of work. He shared that during this time, someone from Dutt’s team called many actors and dissuaded them from working with Gupta. “A few days later, he got those calls from Dutt’s side. And he just said I can’t do the film because I’m doing this other film with Dutt. That’s where I lost it, I said that’s not right,” he said and added, “He had instead gone and done Zilla Ghaziabad which was with Sanju and Arshad. Because he was told that we will make you the main hero here. I was pretty upset with him during that phase, a brief time,” he recalled.

Sanjay later cast Sonu Sood in the role that he had offered to Vivek Oberoi.

From the homepage