15 years of Company: Vivek Oberoi stayed in slums to prep for his role in the film

Actor Vivek Oberoi, who made his debut with Ram Gopal Varma’s Company (2002), talks about his first break, preparation for the role and how boldly he did the stunts.

New Delhi

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma had rejected Vivek Oberoi for Chandu’s role as he thought Vivek didn’t have the looks required for the character.

Making his debut with Ram Gopal Varma’s directorial was a “dream come true” for Vivek Oberoi. However, Vivek, didn’t show any signs of being a newbie and the film made him a star to be reckoned with in Bollywood. His performance as gangster, Chandu was appreciated by many.
Excerpts:

How did you land the role?
My father was planning to launch me in an Abbas Mustan film. But I always wanted to become an actor on my own, so I told him that I would like to go through my struggle. So I went to RGV sir’s office, and told him to give me an audition for the role of Chandu. He did not know (then) that I was Suresh Oberoi’s son. I told him my name was Vivek Anand. He told me I look too good for the role, and he wanted to cast someone who looked like a gangster from the slums.

So how did you convince RVG then?
I told him to give me 15 days. I stayed in the slums. I slept on the floor like others did, with big mices around. I used the public toilets. I had started looking like the part. On the day, I was supposed to meet him, I took out some mud from a plant at his office and applied it on my face. I walked into his room, with a beedi in my mouth — I sat on the chair and kept my legs on his desk, and said, ‘ Ey yeh thobda kya dekh raha hai’. That convinced him.

You did a lot of stunts in the film. Weren’t you scared to do them?
I wanted to do everything, and I loved doing all the stunts. There was a sequence, in which I had to run for my life, jumping from one building to another in the bylanes of Kenya. For a steep jump, RGV had asked the stuntman to do it, and after he had finished the shot, RGV left. I, then persuaded the stunt director to shoot the same scene with me.

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