The claim
Vivek Oberoi has returned to the most disputed chapter of his career. In a promotional clip from an upcoming conversation with host Kash Ruparelia, he says that after a run of successes and awards he was frozen out by a powerful lobby for taking a stand he believed was right.
He describes being treated as “persona non grata” — an unwelcome person in the industry — and says signed films fell away while filmmakers who had promised to stick by him reversed course within weeks. The reason he gives was not a bad market or a failed film, but fear of what would happen to anyone associated with him.
I got gangsters calling me saying that, ‘You film with this guy and you’re done, you’re toast.’
That line, he says, was relayed by a filmmaker who told him he could not risk his life or his family’s life. The allegation is serious and unproven. Oberoi does not identify the lobby, the callers or the filmmakers in the clip, and Moneycontrol notes that the claims have not been independently established.
The 2003 shadow
The story matters because it points back to one of Hindi cinema’s most famous personal feuds. In 2003, Oberoi held a press conference in which he accused Salman Khan of making threatening phone calls to him. It arrived amid coverage of Oberoi’s reported closeness with Aishwarya Rai after her separation from Khan, and it became a defining controversy of the era.
In the years since, Oberoi has offered versions of this account more than once. A 2024 interview again referred to alleged underworld threats. The latest clip renews the frame but does not add names, evidence or a new incident.
Why this remains a live story
For a close follower of Hindi cinema, the account reads less as a revelation than as a reminder that industry power, personal life and public image are often inseparable. A career with hits and awards can still be rerouted when off-screen relationships become the main narrative. That is the framework to keep in mind before the full interview airs.
What to watch for:
- The promotional clip is the first public sample of the interview and sets up the lobby claim without specifics.
- No independent reporting has yet corroborated the gangster-call account, so it remains an allegation.
- The key reference point is the 2003 Salman Khan press conference, which is why the story still resonates decades later.
Oberoi married Priyanka Alva in 2010 and has continued to work, but his latest remarks are another chapter in an unresolved story. If the full interview adds clarity, that will be the real news.
Source: Moneycontrol
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