Vivek Oberoi: What went wrong?

Three summers on, the roles are reversed. Roshan got a sci-fi boost and Oberoi is in the dumps after Kyun! Ho Gaya Na, Yuva and Kisna.

Currently though, chocolate dominates his thoughts. After all, the 30-year-old actor doesn’t let BO blues affect the way he looks, acts or speaks. At Karan Johar’s new office wing in Mumbai’s Khar suburb, he’s clad in sunny stripes with his trademark rudraksh, and wants to celebrate the new premises with a cake. ‘‘I don’t analyse my career. I don’t think about it. Life moves in cycles. People tend to forget with time. I am just three years old here. Give me some time,’’ he rattles off.

But time is a fickle commodity in Bollywood. Trade analyst Amod Mehra says that Oberoi’s last release Kisna did not even register a face-saving initial. His last chance is the forthcoming Kaal, with Ajay Devgan and John Abraham. ‘‘There is no hope left for Vivek. Nobody wants to sign him. He needs a big hit or a miracle,’’ says Mehra.

So how did Oberoi go from the Next Big Thing to this? To start with, he got his first lesson all wrong—that in Bollywood, relationships matter more than money. Oberoi messed up his ties with the two banners that introduced him to the high life.

After gangsta flick Company made Oberoi a household name, the actor announced that director Ram Gopal Varma had given him a raw deal in subsequent films Road and Dum. ‘‘I will never work with Vivek again,’’ Varma reiterates even today. ‘‘He doesn’t interest me as an actor anymore. He got a film like Company that put him up there. After that, it depended on his personal intelligence which way he wanted his career to go.’’

After Shaad Ali’s Saathiya, he could have been the alternative Shah Rukh Khan for Yash Raj Films too. But he dismissed director Kunal Kohli who offered him last year’s surprise blockbuster Hum Tum. That film eventually went to Saif Ali Khan. ‘‘The manner in which I said no to Kunal was wrong,’’ he grimaces. Thanks to that, he also lost out to Abhishek Bachchan on school friend Ali’s Bunty Aur Babli.

Oberoi admits he’s made mistakes. ‘‘Life is all about learning and living. But I am trying to reach out and rebuild ties with people who matter.’’ The actor claims that Kunal and he are friends again, and that he is ‘‘beginning to get back on good terms’’ with Varma.

But the stories about his attitude abound. That he has an opinion on every shot and take. That he addressed Amitabh Bachchan as ‘‘dude’’ on the sets of Kyun! Ho Gaya Na. That on the sets of Kisna, he never greeted his girlfriend Aishwarya Rai’s arch rival Sushmita Sen.

Devgan, who has worked with Oberoi in Company, Yuva, Masti, and now Kaal, believes that Oberoi is the most talented youngster around, ‘‘but he takes being a hero too seriously.’’ Devgan says that Oberoi has a habit of talking too much and “needs to shut up a little’’.

Oberoi does shoot his mouth off at the slightest opportunity. He went to town claiming he had been offered Roland Joffe’s The Invaders, Shekhar Kapur’s Paani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Yagna. To date, the makers have not confirmed Oberoi’s part. ‘‘I am ready whenever they want to put together their films. I would love to work with them,’’ he says.

Oberoi also took on some powerful cliques. That unforgettable press conference two years ago, supposedly to defend Rai’s honour, made him an outsider. While Rai had sufficient clout to tide over the mess, Oberoi still misses a big star’s backing.

If Abhishek Bachchan has the muscle of Yash Raj Films, Roshan has his dad Rakesh. Even the youngest kid on the block, Zayed Khan, has the guidance of Shah Rukh.

Compared to that, Oberoi’s support system is next to zilch. ‘‘The perception is that I am an untouchable or an outcast. But that’s not true,’’ he says emphatically.

Oberoi, whose responses have begun to sound as proper as Rai’s, says he has no regrets about that press conference. ‘‘There was a problem in my life and I solved it. How I solved it is my business.’’ And then, ‘‘Please, this is the last time I am talking about that episode. Forget it, move on and grow up. I have,’’ he smiles. Even Oberoi has a threshold.

Johar says Vivek-bashing has become fashionable in Bollywood. ‘‘Like everyone starts wearing a certain T-shirt or shades, one person must have cracked a joke about Vivek and everyone started adding to it,’’ says Johar.

Oberoi’s reputation as being publicity hungry doesn’t help matters either. While the industry can laugh off his tall claims that he wrote the script of Kyun! Ho Gaya Na—the worst thing about the film—now he also makes news in parliament.

Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa recently rubbished his tsunami aid in Devanampattinam village of Cuddalore district as a publicity stunt. ‘‘I am very clear in my heart that I helped certain people. I don’t care about the praise and don’t do anything for a photo op. I know the truth and that’s all,’’ he counters.

It’s the perfect chance to share how he gave his first acting cheque of Rs 3 lakh for Company for the heart surgery of a then seven-year-old girl, Pooja. ‘‘Today I can say that Pooja was the best investment I made.’’ On his mother’s birthday two days ago, he was scheduled to launch a scheme, SACH (Save A Child’s Heart) in association with Apollo Hospital, Chennai.

Oberoi says that underneath all his bravado, he is still a four-year-old, the age when he first thought of acting. ‘‘At that time, I didn’t know what No 1 or Rs 3 crore meant,’’ he says. ‘‘That spirit is still alive in me.’’

Declaring that ‘‘I am not so emotionally vulnerable and weak,’’ the actor admits that he’s working hard on getting real. ‘‘You can be intelligent. But wisdom comes with experience. And that comes with time.’’ But the clock is ticking really fast.