Vivek Oberoi had a challenging Bollywood journey filled with ups and downs. Recently, the actor opened up about the lesser-known challenges of being an actor and how they have pressure to maintain a certain lifestyle, especially during a financial slump forces actors to take projects that don’t like.
In a recent conversation at the Franchise India event, Vivek Oberoi reflected on the highs and lows he faced in his acting career and shared the lessons he learned through them.
Comparing the film industry to a rollercoaster, he described how success can make one feel at the top of their game while the world is behind them, and downfall can be equally difficult.
The Masti actor revealed that his career graph made him understand how quickly situations change for an actor, which leads to a major financial crunch. Oberoi shared that he measured his success based on the number of bouquets he used to get on his birthday.
“When you are doing well, there’s no place in the house for the bouquets that come in from producers, directors, co-stars; it’s just filled up. And when your films are not doing well, the number of bouquets starts to reduce, and you realize, ‘Oh! I am not doing too well, am I?'” he explained.
Vivek discussed how actors in Bollywood have to maintain a certain lifestyle due to social pressures, but it comes at a heavy price. However, this understanding led him to develop his career as a businessman so that he wouldn’t have to work in a film just for the sake of money.
“This is what has empowered me today, where I don’t need to do a movie that I don’t believe in, or I don’t like the script because dal-roti chalani hai, EMI bharna hai” (I have to run my household, pay my EMI).
Unlike the public perception that actors lead stress-free lives, he explained that actors have distinct challenges. They are accustomed to a lifestyle and have social pressure to maintain it. Consequently, an actor needs a lot of money for it.
On the work front, Vivek was last seen in Rohit Shetty’s web series Indian Police Force, co-starring Siddharth Malhotra and Shilpa Shetty.
