Entertainment | Celebrity
Viveik Oberoi: fiery but sensitive
Bollywood actor Viveik Oberoi talks about work, his passion for vintage cars and his special relationship with Dubai.
- By Krita Coelho, Feature Writer
- Published: 00:10 May 29, 2008
- Image Credit: Vazhisojan/Gulf News
- Viveik Oberoi
Viveik Oberoi on work, his passion for vintage cars and his special relationship with Dubai.
If you haven't seen or heard anything about the dashing Viveik Oberoi in the past few months, consider it the calm before the storm. The man is on a mission to build a macho image for himself with his forthcoming release Mission Istanbul.
Apart from all the action, you can look forward to breathtaking photography – given that Turkey is such a beautiful place. No wonder Viveik exudes confidence about the film's prospects.
The actor hopes this film gets the same overwhelming response in Dubai as Company and Shootout at Lokhandwala did. After all, Dubai is so much like home for the actor that he feels he does not come here enough.
He cannot stop gushing about the ambience and the people. "Everyone's been so kind, loving, accepting and very warm. When I go around here everyone calls me Maya Bhai (his character in Shootout at Lokhandwala).
Dubai is also special to Viveik because of the support he received for his efforts to help the tsunami victims.
"I had launched a very ambitious project to rebuild homes and rehabilitate victims. The people in Dubai were behind me all the way. They gave me so much of confidence and strength. The project turned out to be a huge success."
Love and longing
That Viveik wears his heart on his sleeve was more than evident during the Aishwarya Rai saga. Now the passionate actor seems more mellowed down, but one cannot help broaching the subject of love and relationships with him.
Viveik, of course, wants to steer clear of anything to do with his ex's.
Some time ago there were reports of Viveik saying he does not want to get into a relationship again. He denies this.
"I did not say never again. I believe in love. I am an absolute romantic. I love poetry and I love romantic movies. I watch chick flicks a lot and I am upset that they are called chick flicks because I am a real man's man. When I went to see Taare Zameen Par I ran out of tissues. I had gone with my mom. She is my movie partner and after a long time she gave me her dupatta to wipe my tears."
For Viveik "life is about assimilating relationships and putting them together like a necklace of pearls." For now, this actor is happy to be single and focused on his work. "I believe that someone somewhere is waiting for me," he says.
Reel and real
Spurred into action by this comment, we wonder if Viveik's character Keshu Phirangi in Omkaara close to his real life persona as was widely speculated? Completely untrue, says the actor, except for the fact that he loves with all his heart.
"Keshu is an emotional fool and I don't think I am anything like him. When I love someone I love with all my heart and when I believe in someone, I do it with all my heart." Perhaps there is a message there.
Continuing on the same vein, Viveik is sometimes accused of shying away from single–hero movies, a charge he is quick to refute. "I do not have that single hero and multiple hero approach. I look out for interesting films and interesting characters. When I look at a role, I look at it from the point of view that I should like playing that character because I put in a lot of work. I do just one film at a time." I
t's the in-thing for actors to research their characters these days in order to get into the skin of the character. So does Viveik do that too? "Not always. Certain characters do not need research. The character I played in Saathiya was so close to my heart that I got into the skin of the character effortlessly."
For Omkaara, however, Viveik learned to play the guitar. He visited slums to prepare for Shootout at Lokhandwala.
"For Shootout I did a lot of research as I was playing a real life character – notorious gangster, Maya Dholas. I went to the jails and met policemen who actually caught such people and who were a part of the shootout when Maya was killed. I went to places where he lived and spoke to people whom he worked with."
Chilling out
Did you know Viveik has a passion for vintage car racing? He plans to buy a classic beauty soon. "My dad is against the idea. He says he will have to take care of it since I travel most of the time. But there is so much beauty and romance in vintage cars. I feel these cars represent so much of history," says Viveik.
And when he is not playing with cars there are always the pet dogs. "I talk to my dogs. It's not only baby talk. I have full length conversations with my dogs Lord Duke and Lady Ivy (both boxers). My mom thinks I am mad. I think I tend to overdo it sometimes."
Angry young man
For a man who is never short of words, Viveik says "clarifications are tedious" especially when they involve justifying your position to the media or other people. He's even less bothered about the ‘rifts' the media creates between actors.
"There are very conscientious people in the media and there are also those who love yellow journalism and constantly speculate about things. I believe that the truth will always shine in the end," says Viveik.
What gets his goose, however, is any tomfoolery with his philantropic work. "When I was working during the tsunami I was not taken seriously by the media. I was working in an emergency situation and they were pestering me for interviews. I did not oblige, which upset many. I made it a rule that anyone wanting my interview would have to wait till the end of the day and work with me at the refugee camp," he says.
He adds,"There was a journalist from the New York Times who actually worked with me and then wrote a beautiful piece. I got so many donations after that. The Indian-based journalists said they had important things to do and many places to go. So I told them that my work is more important than their articles. They slammed me by saying I am a publicity hound. The beauty of it is that despite the bad publicity people came to help me."
Things Viveik's thankful for:
- My family, my pillars of strength.
- My fans for standing by me.
- God for blessing me with good health.
- My critics for always pushing me to do better .
- The values I learned from my parents.
- The love and the pain that I've gone through as it helped me grow.
- My mom's food.
- The opportunities I got.
- All the people who have helped me.
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