Akshay Oberoi: We lucked out as there were no Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar sort of big films releasing in 2020

With his unconventional career choices, actor Akshay Oberoi made it obvious that he’s more concerned about the story and his character and not about the screen time he gets. In fact, he’s ready to do even a five-minute role as long as it’s interesting.

“I don’t understand when people say, ‘Arrey mujhe to sirf lead role hi karna hai’. I find it amusing. For me, saying yes or no depends on the story, character and whether it’ll help me develop my craft,” says Oberoi, who has been part of films such as Laal Rang (2016), Gurgaon (2017) and Bombairiya (2019).

The actor adds that he has no issues in playing the so called supporting roles or be a part of ensemble casts. “I follow my intuition and gut. I’ll only get work if I can prove myself. I want to work and improve consistently. Rest of the discussions that happens are just noise to me,” he continues, “I’ve been through worst in my career. I’ve seen many rock bottoms and picked myself up every time. So, I don’t let the trappings bother me anymore.”

Despite the pandemic, Oberoi had a pretty decent 2020 with his web projects Flesh, High, Illegal and Hum Tum and Them doing well.

“I’m thankful for the opportunities. I think we lucked out because there were no Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar sort of big films releasing, so the attention fell on these shows and films. And projects like Scam, Mirzapur, Flesh got so much love. OTT is going to be a big part of the future and the pandemic only sped up the process,” says the actor, who has his hands full with upcoming projects including a Hindi remake of Tamil film Thiruttu Payale, a thriller, KTina and web series, Inside Edge 3.

Interestingly, after Gurgaon, in Flesh and the recently released Madam Chief Minister also, the actor plays negative parts. Asked if he enjoys playing such roles and does he worries about getting stereotyped, the actor tells us, “This didn’t occur to me because I’ve played romantic, horror and other characters, too. But yes, I do enjoy playing negative parts… there’s so much to do in these roles. At times, doing something more than once might set a pattern, so I consciously try to make each character different.”

The actor, who is also the first cousin of actor Vivek Oberoi, has also been vocal about the issues plaguing the film industry, and he hopes that the conversation happening right now will bring about a positive change.

“Nepotism exists and it should continue to exist as long as those people coming from film families are good at what they do and others are also getting opportunity. We must have healthy competition to flourish,” he opines.

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Author tweets @Shreya_MJ