Vivek Oberoi will soon be on telly, judging children’s drama competition India’s Best Dramebaaz. He took time off to talk to us about the show and reminisce about his days as a child. The actor admits he was a handful. He says, “My mom would often be summoned in school due to my mischief.
On the other hand though, I was very good at studies, and would get bored easily because I would grasp lessons much faster than my classmates. So when I was not busy reading, I would keep coming up with new pranks. I used to steal my teacher’s tiffin box, eat all the food and quietly keep in back in her bag. Once I not just ate the food, but also put some flying cockroaches in her lunchbox. This other time, in Class seven, I didn’t want to appear for an exam, because I hadn’t studied.
So inspired by Bollywood films, I made a hoax call to my school saying that there’s a bomb on the premises. Unfortunately I got caught and was beaten up by my family. After this my parents sent me to boarding school in Ajmer.”
Going back to his academic excellence he adds, “Since I would excel at studies, I wanted to be a scientist. Even today, I’m interested in technology. I also won a gold medal in NCC and had got an offer from NDA to join the army, but life had other plans for me.”
Now that he’s a parent himself (to a son and daughter-Vivaan Veer and Ameyaa Nirvana) is he a strict parent? “Not at all,” he says. “My wife says that I’m a good father, but I leave the disciplining to her. Even the kids know that if they want something, they will get it from me. Although I admit, that I can never be as good as my father. Even at the peak of his career, every weekend he would be outside our school, and take my sister and me on surprise trips and drive us by himself. He always put family before professional success. My children sleep at 8 pm so I try reaching home by 7 to bathe them and tell them stories. ”
About work, what does he want to pursue next? “I’m very interested in the web series that are getting good reactions at the moment. So many concepts that are not viable in cinema are getting a medium through the web so I may want to do something like that too. Also I plan to release my film as a producer, Dekh Indian Circus starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui on a grand scale next year.” He also has films Great Grand Masti and Bank Chor in the pipeline.
