Vivek Oberoi started his Bollywood career by a negative role in Ram Gopal Verma’s Company that bagged him the Filmfare Award for the best newcomer as well as the Best Supporting Actor.Though his film career took off with a bang, it was the release of critically-acclaimed and commercial successes, Saathiya, Omkara, Shootout in Lokhandwala, which established his merit as an actor.But, if one goes by the word of the performer himself, Vivek swears by his character of Kesu Firangi which he played in Omkara and proclaims it to be his best film yet. Expressindia.com meets the actor during his recent Delhi trip.What types of roles do you love to do? Are you still to perform in your dream role?Each role comes up with its unique challenges, which excites me, and I try to give my best to it. Every role, which I have to perform, is like a dream role.How do you react to different types of roles?Like for any other actor, every role is like a challenge for me. I don’t like a role until I feel butterflies in my stomach. There is that anxiety, which comes with each character we play and makes us perform better each time.How do you rate your movies and where does Omkara stand for you?Omkara is my best performance yet. Though as an actor I strive to keep improving on myself but so far, this movie is outstanding for me. Omkara is a milestone for me.Personally speaking, are your satisfied with whatever Omkara has achieved?Yeah, to a great extent, I am happy with the way Omkara was received by the people and the enthusiastic response it got. It did very good at the box office and was widely critically-acclaimed. I, personally feel it should have been our entry for Oscars.It represents the Indian sentiments better than any other movie produced in the same year. Omkara is that genre of the movie, which seems to bridge the divide between the commercial and the serious cinema.Apart from yours, which character you like the most in Omkara?I loved the ‘villainous character’ of Langda Tyagi in Omkara played by Saif Ali Khan. He played it absolutely well. Nobody could have played that role better than Saif. His performance as Langda Tyagi was phenomenal.How far can Omkara be called a commercial film?Omkara cannot be called a serious film in the real sense of the word because it had an item number, but again it cannot be called a commercial film because it is a docu-drama, which is simply packaged to suit the commercial cinema.Do you like sports based movies? Do you intend to do a sports-based movie?Personally speaking, I love sports. Though, I am myself not involved in any sports based film at present. A couple of movies based on sports are in the offing and I hope people will like them.In Shootout at Lokhandwala, you play the role of a dreaded gangster Maya? How far was this character you played in the movie was in conformity with the real life gangster?It was again a very challenging role for me. But as far as the real life gangster (on whose life my character was based) is concerned, I have only heard about him. While shooting for this movie (Shootout at Lokhandwala), I collected data about this character. I tried to learn the minutes of my role in all possible ways to do justice to my character, but still there are certain things about the character, which remain untouched.What are your upcoming projects?I am working for Mission Istanbul directed by Apoorva Lakia. It is being made by Balaji Motion Pictures (in co-production with Popcorn Motion Pictures). Most of the cast in this film is the same from Shootout at Lokhandwala.How do you rate your performance in Bollywood so far?As an actor, I need to polish myself more. I am still in the learning process.
