Vivek Oberoi Calls Bollywood An 'Exclusive Club'; 'Unless You Have The Right Surname Or Contact, You Ain't In'

Vivek Oberoi in his recent interview with a leading tabloid spoke at length about his journey in Bollywood and said that while he may have made mistakes in the past and taken wrong turns in his career, he doesn't regret anything.

The Saathiya actor quoted as saying, "Regret is not the word I would choose. I believe you regret when you are not happy where they got you. If you take a wrong turn, and it is a bumpy road and you land at a place where there is nothing but scenic beauty around you. Then you thank that bumpy road. I am in that space where every single part of my journey, I treasure and I smile about it and laugh about it."

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Vivek who made his debut in the film industry with Ram Gopal Varma's 2002 film Company went on to call Bollywood an exclusive club where surnames matter more than talent.

He said, "As far as practical aspects of it, being ....(sounds funny when I say it) being a senior who has been around for 20 years, I do feel we have missed a trick or two. One big complaint that I have against my industry is that we haven't developed the nursery that nurtures young talent. It is difficult. We made it into this exclusive club where it is either surname or who you know or which lobby or which darbar you do a salaam at... that matters, not your talent. That's unfortunate."

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Calling Bollywood an 'exclusive club', he added, "For any industry to thrive, for any industry to grow, you need fresh ideas, you need people coming in and you need to be a welcoming space and not a space that goes on (to say), 'Listen this is an exclusive club, and unless you have the right surname or the right contact, you are not in. That, to me, is unfortunate. I love that the OTT is playing the part of that nursery where we are discovering and nurturing stars as we watch content online. We watch The Scam 1992 and Pratik Gandhi becomes a star. That gives me great joy."

Talking about how he attempts to bring in fresh talent, support new actors and remove any kind of hierarchical structure in films, Vivek revealed that when he did Inside Edge, he requested the producers to put Richa Chadha's name above him despite being her senior in the industry.

"I celebrate all my women colleagues, I celebrate Richa as a great actor and I am fortunate to have worked with her. That equanimity, that sense of doing away with all hierarchical structures and just being creative people having fun on sets, is what should drive it," the tabloid quoted him as saying.

The actor further said that the idea of stardom doesn't fascinate him and added, "I wanted to be an actor. To me, stardom is not exciting. Just the process of acting and enjoying that. Being in that moment of creation, that is what drives me - that purity of creation is what is exciting."

Vivek recently starred in the web series Inside Edge 3 which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.