Actor Vivek Oberoi tells Sakshi Sharma that the first season of his series Inside Edge was a flat plane but in the second one, his character graph takes a complex turn
Actor Vivek Oberoi is avoiding long interviews because he doesn’t want to confirm whether his character is dead or alive in the digital series Inside Edge 2. “Everybody wants to know if Vikrant Dhawan is alive or not because he was on the brink of dying in the first season,” he tells us.
In the trailer, Vikrant is nowhere in the first half but peeps in the last 11 seconds. “As the trailer came out, my wife went on watching it but halfway through, when she couldn’t find me in it, she was shocked and asked, ‘why aren’t you in the trailer?’ And then the last 11 seconds, the voice, the image from behind, all of the drama around and her reaction was super exciting. People are shouting, ‘those last 11 seconds man.’ It feels so special to receive this love. And what is even better is that, I know we are going to live up to or cross people’s expectations,” adds he.
While Vivek was dubbing a series, Jack Ryan in Hindi, he was approached to dub another show — Inside Edge series — which was later nominated for the Emmy awards which the actor feels was a cherry on top.
In the first season, Vikrant was the king of the game, he was the master manipulator, the man who used drugs and weapons against people. He loved the experience of being in power and controlling things. But at the end of the season he loses everything. He loses the world that he created in just one big stroke.
But this season’s Vikrant is very different. So it was like starting from a scratch. With powerful expressions, the actor talks about his character. He says, “Imagine the wounded lion who is even more dangerous, coming back to his kingdom and territory and saying ‘this is mine, I am going nowhere.’ The guy who learned from his master who backstabbed him, is now going to master him. So will Vikrant succeed in claiming back his territory and power. And if he does, how does he do that? Those exciting questions intrigues one to watch the series.”
If the first season was flat plane, in the second season his character graph is quite complex. Working on that graph was difficult for Vivek because it had to be done in a very realistic way. “In the first season, Vikrant was above everyone, he was almost like a comic book villain, slightly larger than life, projected rather than real. But now he’s real, he’s among everybody, sitting next to a regular person.” Since the series is non-linear, the challenge was even higher. “One day I had to shoot a scene from episode nine and in the evening I had to shoot for episode two where I am somewhere else in the graph. To be able to plot that was difficult,” adds he.
But even then for Vivek, the psychological journey was challenging for he negotiated — the vulnerability, fear, insecurity, rage, vengeance, greed and so much more. It was one of the most detailed curated experience for the actor.
Though the digital space is very empowering, Vivek, having been a prized Bollywood hero at one time, had his fair share of criticism. “What’s wrong with you, why are you doing digital content? It will be small and have no quality.” But the actor says that he has always built his career on disruption. “My debut came in when every other actor was following a format where their father would launch them in a film where they would ride horses, do action, dance and romance, and wear designer dresses too and look good in that. And I went for a complete opposite in my debut film Company (2002). I actually dropped out of the film that my father was producing. And I struggled for a year and a half without a last name, stood in line like everyone else and somehow made it through an audition of Company. Everybody told my dad that I am wrong, ‘he has got no style, has not danced or romanced in the film. He is just walking with a cigarette in his mouth.’ And when it became a hit people said ‘now do these types of films only.’ So I did a romantic film, Saathiya (2002), and when that became a hit everyone asked me to do such kind of films only. Then I did Masti (2013), which is the first-of-its-kind, a crazy comedy. I kept doing the stuff which was different. I also did the role of a villain in Krrish 3 (2013) because I always wanted to push my limits and challenge the norms.”
The digital platform became truly democratic and liberating because it allows an actor to do the kind of roles they want to. If Vikrant was a film’s character, Vivek feels he wouldn’t have been able to do justice with it then. Looking upbeat, a series allows you to craft each facet of the character.
The actor has overcome savage troll attacks for his lead role in Narendra Modi’s biopic, in May this year. He shares that he has a negativity filter within him. “Wherever I see anything going negative, I just cut it off because staying positive and happy in your beautiful bubble is a conscious daily choice. You can allow people only if you want to. Imagine that your home is clean, and somebody wants to put garbage there. Will you open the gate? No, so I just do that. I only look towards the positive people. I am thankful that I could do a role like, so many critics and people applauded it,” says he. That’s Vivek for you. A talented actor who is still looking for a role that isn’t just a suit.
“Don’t miss it. It is as riveting as a Virendra Sehwag inning,” he says as he signs off.
(The Amazon Prime Original releases on December 6.)
Photo: Pankaj Kumar