The inside story of Vivek Oberoi’s Bollywood debut

Brut India

This is what Vivek Oberoi had to do to convince filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma that he’s the right guy to play a gangster in his debut film “Company”.  : Anas Bukhash أنس بوخش

Transcript

00:00I kick the door open, I swagger into his office,

00:03I pull up the chair without asking, I sit on the chair,

00:07and then I take it one step forward,

00:08I put my feet on his desk like that,

00:10and I say in Hindi, which is,

00:12hey, what are you looking at my face?

00:14Look at the photo, look at the photo,

00:15and I threw the bunch of photos.

00:16And when you got into acting,

00:23you made sure that you don't want to get off

00:26your father's name and success,

00:27and you changed your last name, I think.

00:30Is that correct?

00:31That's right.

00:33Partially.

00:34I found out about this film that's being made

00:37by Ram Gopal Verma called Company.

00:39And I wear my best clothes, I land up at the office,

00:45I've taken all my certificates,

00:46I've taken my audition tapes from New York,

00:50and I've got all this New York on my shoulder,

00:52and I'm walking in, and I meet the man,

00:54he was like, great, I can see you're very talented,

00:57you're a good actor, but you're not for me,

00:58not for this film.

00:59So I was like, why?

01:01He's like, you're too polished, you're too educated,

01:04you come back from New York,

01:05how are you going to look like a slum guy?

01:06So he gave me a brief, and then he said,

01:08look, we're just wasting time,

01:10you know, you're not what I'm looking for.

01:11So I went from his office to my house,

01:13packed a bag, went to the closest slum that I knew,

01:18went into the slum, hired a small hut,

01:23like a slum dwelling, right?

01:25And I lived there for 21 days, in that slum.

01:29My case is in Airtel.

01:30I am constantly following up

01:32with Ram Gopal Babu's office,

01:33give me one opportunity to come and see you, sir,

01:35I want to show you something.

01:38One fine day, he says, come.

01:40So I get a time slot.

01:42So I've grown this scraggly beard, right,

01:44for the photo shoot.

01:45I don't shave it, I keep the look on.

01:48I wear clothes that I actually bought,

01:50used clothes off a clothesline, right?

01:54I wear the clothes of the character.

01:56I wear the chappals, I put a bidi in my mouth,

01:58I carry the photographs as a bunch,

01:59and I'm like, live audition, right?

02:01He's not expecting it.

02:03I'm just going to walk in as the character.

02:05So I reach his main gate and the security guard stops me.

02:08And this guy's seen me three or four times before.

02:10He stops me and I'm like, yes.

02:12You know, I convinced him.

02:14Gave my name, Vivekananda, and he said, send him in.

02:16I look at this, you know, the dark tinted glass

02:20at the doors of the office,

02:22where you can see your own reflection.

02:24I look at my face, I'm like, wait, I'm looking to clean.

02:27And I look around and I see this plant pot.

02:30And I put my fingers in and I dig out dirt,

02:34earth from there.

02:35And I look in this two, you know,

02:37one way or door mirror thing, this glass,

02:40and I start to just, you know, dirty my face a little bit.

02:43Put a bidi in my mouth, spark the bidi.

02:46I'm dragging and I walk up to his office door.

02:50I say prayer, and then I just switch.

02:55I become the gangster, because it was a gangster's role.

02:58So I kick the door open.

03:00I swagger into his office.

03:02I pull up the chair without asking.

03:04I sit on the chair and then I take it one step forward.

03:06I put my feet on his desk like that.

03:09And I'm just giving him this death stare, right?

03:12Full intense attitude, smoking the bidi,

03:15blowing the smoke on him.

03:17And he's just looking at me.

03:20Who is this guy?

03:21This is not the guy I met.

03:23And then he starts to kind of just observe me and smile.

03:26And I say in Hindi, which is,

03:28hey, what are you looking at my face?

03:30Look at the photo.

03:31And I threw the bunch of photos on the table.

03:33He looks at me.

03:34He gets up, but I'm not giving up my character.

03:36I'm just like,

03:39giving attitude like I'm this big mafia don

03:41or something like that.

03:43He looks at me and he says,

03:45that's the craziest and best audition I've ever seen.

03:49He got the role.

03:50I'm still not giving up.

03:51Because I don't know, is he tricking me?

03:53Is he testing me?

03:54I'm like still.

03:55He's like, can you put that bidi out?

03:58You're messing up my office.

03:59I was like, sorry, sir.

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