The actor says that playing grey characters has helped him explore a cool side to himself adding some fun to his otherwise dull life
Titas Chowdhury (HINDUSTAN TIMES; December 4, 2019)

Vivek Oberoi marked his foray into the digital space two years ago. Though he shot to fame as a romantic hero in Saathiya (2002), he went on to give some memorable performances as an antagonist in films such as Company (2002), Shootout At Lokhandwala (2007) and Krrish 3 (2013), and he decided to explore it further with his web show. “I’m damn boring in real life. When I play grey and dark characters, I get to be someone interesting for a change. I get to go out and do all the cool and mad stuff. When I was narrated the script of the first season of my web show Inside Edge, Ritesh (Sidhwani; producer) thought that I would have some hesitation because my character’s quite dark. My only concern was, it wasn’t black enough (laughs),” he says.

He says that in the second season of the web show, his character will be taken a notch higher. The actor explains, “He plays up even when he’s speaking to someone. He makes use of a lot of unnatural pauses, makes people feel uncomfortable and imposes his power on them. He’s like a master puppeteer.”

Vivek says that the web has empowered him to push the envelope for himself. “Despite a lot of trepidation and people being apprehensive about working in digital medium, we’re now able to break out of boxes and do roles that would otherwise be impossible to do on a traditional platform. I’ve done television and cinema across seven languages, but I’ve never been in a situation where I could do all the stuff that my web show has empowered me to do,” he elaborates.

Ask him about his journey in the world of showbiz and he quips, “I’m so busy looking forward that I’ve no time to look back. I imagine that I would reflect back on my career and life when I’m sitting on a rocking chair — all grey and done. I’m currently exuberant with all the stuff that’s going on.”

Hinting at his upcoming projects, he shares, “My production house has taken off and I’ll be producing a project on the Balakot air strike. It’ll have a multi-platform release and will be a multilingual project. It’s a massive undertaking and it’s supremely exciting for me. A collaboration with an OTT giant is also on the tender hooks.”