Vivek Oberoi

Vivek Oberoi, b. September 3, 1976, attended Mayo college in Ajmer, India. At an actors' workshop in London he was spotted by the director of NYU who whisked Vivek off to New York City to complete his Masters Degree in film acting.

Returning to India Vivek worked as scriptwriter and bought his first car with the money he made from that.

Oberoi's big break came when noted filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma offered him a role in his gangster flick, Company (2002). This was an unusual entrance for debutants in Bollywood, because young actors normally played good lover boys to secure their place in Filmdom. Apparently, Ram Gopal Varma was having second thoughts about casting Oberoi in Company because he thought Vivek looked too cute for a gangster - and told him so. Vivek, not to be outdone, went to the slums of Mumbai and did his homework and a couple of weeks later barged into Varma's office dressed as Chandu the gangster, swung his feet up on the table, and landed the contract pronto.

From there the road went uphill. Oberoi's immaculate performance in Company - in which he starred opposite Bollywood Big Bad Boy Ajay Devgan, Miss Bolly Manisha Koirala and the granddaddy of Malayalam Cinema, Mohanlal - was more than enough to get the media singing Oberoi's praises. Next in line was the psycho-thriller Road (2002) (opposite Company co-star and co-newcomer Antara Mali), Dum (2003) (which sank without a trace - opposite Diya Mirza) and the next big catch, Saathiya (2002), opposite Rani Mukherjee.

He recently got engaged to, and then broke up with longtime girlfriend Gurpreet, and is currently linked with Rani Mukherjee and Aishwarya Rai. Recently he got himself into the headlines for a press conterence outburst against Salman Khan.