With a filmography that spans two decades and films like Saathiya (2002), Kaal (2005), Shootout At Lokhandwala (2007), the Masti series and more under his belt, actor Vivek Oberoi’s journey in the Hindi film industry has been quite long. He started his acting journey with director Ram Gopal Varma’s Company (2002) and after being a part of nearly 50 projects, the actor says he is now more picky about the projects he takes on.

Sharing his philosophy, Oberoi says, “When you don’t have to do something for any other reason, but the joy and passion of it, then the success or failure of a project doesn’t matter. After spending two decades in the industry, I feel empowered enough to be able to stand behind something I love and believe in.”

Expounding on his decisions to do things differently, the 46-year-old talks about his choice to do streaming shows. “When nobody was doing OTT, I did Inside Edge. I got phenomenal success from it with the awards and an Emmy nomination. It was a very fulfilling feeling [for me],” he says.

Another decision that the actor, who is fluent in Tamil, firmly stands behind is doing films down South. “I decided I wanted to do a film in each South Indian languages. I knew that films in other languages wouldn’t offer the same kind of fee that I get for Hindi films. So, I took a pay cut and worked harder in a language that’s not natural to me,” says Oberoi, who has worked in the Tamil film Vivegam (2017), Telugu film Vinaya Vidheya Rama (2019) and in two Malayalam films — Lucifer (2019) and Kaduva (2022).