Ignored, but irrepressible
After 13 years and 16 years respectively on the sidelines, actors Arjun Mathur and Vivek Gomber take centre stage. Is the performance-driven actor finally the star?
N“I THOUGHT ALL I NEEDED TO DO WAS GET ON A SET WITH KARAN JOHAR, AND HE’D SEE HOW GOOD I AM AND I’D BE IN HIS NEXT FILM!” —ARJUN MATHUR
early 13 years after assistant director Arjun Mathur started acting via a role in Mira Nair’s 2008 short film, Migration, he has stepped directly into the spotlight. The 39-year-old actor’s role in Made in Heaven even got him an Emmy nomination this year.
Meanwhile, it took Vivek Gomber 16 years to finally get to the stage in his career where filmmakers fight over him. The 42-year-old actor who began his career in 2005 with a role in the TV show Astitva Ek Prem Kahani arrived centre stage with his acting in Is Love Enough, Sir? (2018) and production in The Disciple (2021).
Nobody has ever said that making it as an actor is easy. But how much self-belief and patience does it really take to hit the big time? Arjun and Vivek are happy to share.
THE FIRST BREAK
“The first time I faced the camera, I was an assistant director (AD) in Kyun! Ho Gaya Na... (2004) in which I played an AD too!” says Arjun. “Then, after about five years and multiple auditions, I bagged two short films, Migration and Farhan Akhtar’s Positive.” Arjun’s first feature film was Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance (2009), where he played the protagonist’s best friend.
Vivek moved to India from Singapore after studying acting in the US, to get his first break. When he acted in a play after someone dropped out, he landed the TV show in 2005.
However, he still really struggled. “I wasn’t bagging stuff and really didn’t understand how to audition. I wasn’t able to adopt and adapt to the city and the culture,” Vivek says. Confused, he decided to stick to theatre and short films and used his auditions for ads as practice for film roles – and also for rejection. “You had 45 seconds and it could ruin or make your day,” he adds.
Playing second fiddle is something both of them have done in the past decade. “I did My Name is Khan (2010) because I was
getting to work with really big filmmakers. My naivety showed. I thought all I needed to do was get on a set with Karan Johar, and he’d see how good I am and I’d be in his next film!” laughs Arjun.
THE ‘BEST FRIEND’ TYPECAST
But when Arjun realised his commercial roles were typecasting him, he consciously gravitated towards independent work which he could carry on his own shoulders. “I was not happy with being typecast as the best friend. But if I were to play Vivek’s best friend in an independent film, that would be completely different from playing the best friend to a mega star. In a big film, the best friend is there just to embellish the hero’s trajectory forward. That wasn’t working for me,” says the actor. In between the indies, he acted in ads and that’s what really paid all the bills, he says.
Vivek however took a while to figure things out. “I didn’t know what I needed to do to put myself in a position to get lead auditions. An audition like that would open more such possibilities,” explains the actor, who made Court in 2014. “Today, if I have to play Arjun’s best friend, I wouldn’t mind. Maybe it’s because I’m 42 years old and I understand this now. But at 26, I was just trying not to be depressed, not go to extremities or implode.”
Each of them spent time in states of envy when they saw other actors getting roles that they had really wanted.
“I saw lesser actors bag roles I wanted really badly,” Arjun says. “I was once even told by a producer that I couldn’t be part of his film because I was better than the protagonist. I said, ‘fair enough, I’ll take that talent and move on.’”
Even Court did not help Vivek much, so he kept auditioning, including for Made in Heaven, till he finally bagged Netflix’s Bombay Begums (2021).
“Mind you, all this is work that gets accolades,” Arjun points out.
In 2017, Vivek starred in Rohena Gera’s Sir. But nothing changed. So he made
“I was not happy with being typecast as the best friend. In a big film, the best friend is there just to embellish the hero’s trajectory forward.” —Arjun Mathur