Vivek Oberoi says lobbies in Bollywood blocked his road to success, feels there was ‘no logic’ behind it: ‘I was told kaun panga lega?’

By the mid 2000s, Vivek said that he was not getting enough opportunities, even after appearing in successful films like Omkara and Shootout at Lokhandwala. He shared with Pinkvilla that while people, including the industry folks, appreciated his performances, they told him that they couldn’t cast him for the fear of ruining their equation with whoever was holding the proverbial strings.

“It’s very difficult to get out these situations. You keep telling yourself that it’s just a matter of one movie, that you just need to perform and show people. You are doing films like Omkara and Shootout at Lokhandwala, you are getting awards and appreciation. But then people are telling you that we want to work with you but we can’t, there is too much pressure,” he said.

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The actor added, “People kept telling me, ‘Samajh ja yaar. Kaun pange lega? (Try to understand. Who would take a risk?)’ When that happens you can’t figure out how to get out of the situation, because there is no logic to it. You have worked hard, given the performances but there are things that you cannot control. There is a lobby telling people that they can’t work with me.”

Oberoi stated that the aforementioned situation made him feel helpless, and that is when he slipped “into depression”. He called the time period extremely “painful and difficult” and said that at one point he even tried reaching out to people in order to ask them to let the whole thing go, but nothing worked. But Oberoi admitted that times have changed now and gave the example of OTT and the hit series Ba***ds of Bollywood to prove his point.

He said, “The good thing about the industry today is that these lobbies are either dead or dying. Talent has become really key, and I think that OTT has played a huge role in that. It has brought in good quality of talent in the right way. I look at something like Ba***ds of Bollywood, and I see Aryan Khan, who has put so much into that series, and you can tell that he has worked for every frame. At the same time you have someone like Raghav Juyal in it, who used to be a dancer during promo shows of our movies.”

Vivek’s latest film Masti 4 is currently in theatres. Directed by Milap Zaveri, the cast of Masti 4 also includes Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Elnaaz Norouzi, and Ruhi Singh.