Vivek Oberoi’s dad Suresh Oberoi called him ‘mad’ for wanting to struggle, change his name to hide family connection

And then, Vivek said, he suggested dropping his last name. “I will just be Vivek Anand and I will struggle. I will go door-to-door, I will go office-to-office. I will stand in queues. I will go and take my portfolios, awards and certificates that I had won in inter-college and national youth festivals,” he said.

The actor made his debut with Ram Gopal Varma’s Company. In an earlier interview, Vivek had spoken about how difficult it was to convince the filmmaker that he could play a small-time goon. After being turned down by RGV for being too ‘polished’, Vivek told Indian Express last year, he ‘checked into a slum’ for 15 days. “I went and rented a ‘kholi’, a little hut and I stayed for 15 days in a slum. It had no toilet. I had to go to a ‘sulabh shauchalaya’ (public toilet). I had to keep one-rupee coins with me. I had to bath out of a drum of water with no plumbing. I slept on the floor with mice all around. I ate and drank locally. I observed how they drink their tea, smoke their ‘beedis’ and eat their samosa. Basically, I studied all that. I recorded how they live. I dressed up as that character with chappals, torn shirt, vest inside, tight pants and messed up completely. I then went to meet Ramu,” he said.

He has since appeared in films such as Saathiya, Yuva, Shootout at Lokhandwala, Kurbaan and Krrish 3. Most recently, he appears in the Amazon Prime Video series Inside Edge.