Vivek Oberoi had sworn off serious relationships, decided never to marry when he met Priyanka Alva: ‘I was flat in love’

“Priyanka was somewhere in New York, studying her MBA at that time, and they (relatives) set everything up. My mother saw this, and she has seen enough of me saying ‘please don’t talk about it’ in the past. She had tried this in the past… She is looking at this photo, and I come home and see the picture and say ‘she is quite pretty’. Next thing I know is that she is telling me ‘you have to meet her’,” Vivek told Humans of Bombay.

 

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In an interview with Curly Tales, he shared more details and said, “I didn’t want to get married, I was partying away. I was like no serious relationships. Its too much stress, too much complications. I had my fatherly emotion satisfied with my nieces and nephews. So, I was like, why to get married. My mom said, ‘meet this one girl, meet her and if you don’t like her, you say no, after that I will never tell you to meet anybody else but meet this one.'”

Vivek flew to Italy to see Priyanka, where she was holidaying with her family. “I planned to meet her in the afternoon. I thought, I will meet her as a formality, I will take the flight and head back home. One thing led to another, I realised I missed my flight. And then I ended up staying two-three days extra because I just didn’t want to leave. I was flat in love with her like the first 2 hours. It was like love at first sight”, he told Curly Tales.

 

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Vivek Oberoi said it was not based on just the physicality. Recalling seeing her for the first time, Vivek told Humans of Bombay, “I was in a cafe, and I saw this girl walking in towards me. The first thing I noticed was that she was wearing flat chappals, simple linen pants, simple top, her hair tied up loosely with that stick and no make up. I was like ‘Waah confidence ki daad deni padegi’. She is not dressed up, she just came and sat in front of me and said, ‘Hi, sorry I am 10 minutes late’.”

Priyanka’s practical question won Vivek’s heart. “She blew my mind. She told me, ‘tell me about yourself’, I said, ‘I am an actor’. She said, ‘That’s just what you do. Tell me who you are.’ I was like ‘Oh my god, this just got real’ and it made me pause and think because that’s something not many times in life somebody will ask you. You are not used to the question, so you are not used to thinking of the answer. Otherwise we always have this prerecorded or rehearsed answers. I thought ‘Who am I? What do I want in life? Even after 14 years of marriage, I am still thinking about it”, Vivek told Curly Tales.

 

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After his first meeting, Vivek pulled a Bollywood card to impress Priyanka and rented a convertible and reached where Priyanka was staying. “She was completely shocked to see me, and I said let’s go for a drive, and we took off and it was a day of just conversation and I don’t know what happened. At the end of the day, I dropped her home and I told her ‘Look, you are a lady, it’s your privilege to decide yes or no but if I am ever in my life going to get married its going to be with you. If I don’t marry you, I won’t get married at all. Rest is up to you. You take your time and decide’. And then I made my exit and that was it.”

Vivek and Priyanka married on October 29, 2010. The couple had a traditional South Indian wedding in Bengaluru in the presence of their close friends and family. The couple share two kids–Ameyaa Nirvana and Vivaan Veer. Priyanka Alva is the daughter of Karnataka politician Jeevaraj Alva and Nandani Alva.