The infamous brawl between Salman Khan and Vivek Oberoi will always remain one of the ugliest spats in the Bollywood industry. In 2003, Vivek had called a press conference and had claimed that Salman had telephoned him in the mid-night 41 times accusing him of having physical relationships with his ex-girlfriend Aishwarya Rai, Diya Mirza, Rani Mukherjee and Somy Ali. Vivek had even said that an inebriated Salman had threatened to kill him.
Interestingly, no one from the Bollywood industry came out in support of Vivek's outburst in the media. Instead, they all spoke against Vivek for speaking about the incident in the media rather than sorting out their differences personally.
"In the film industry, there is a code of honour whereby all problems are sorted out internally," Abhishek Bachchan had spoken in support of Salman against his ugly spat with Vivek Oberoi.
Kareena Kapoor, who had worked with Salman in a film and was good friends with him, too had expressed her dismay over the entire controversy and said that "if Vivek had a problem with Salman, why could he not solve it instead of going to the press?"
Salman's good friend Suniel Shetty had also said that Vivek calling a press conference to talk about Salman behaving badly with him was in a very bad taste.
"I don't know what's happening with Vivek and how he looks at life. Being an actor and a coartiste, he should not have taken the matter to the press. If he felt Salman had behaved badly, he [Oberoi] should have confronted him [Khan] physically instead of talking about it on television. I thought it was in very bad taste. Everyone believes Vivek has done it for publicity," Shetty had said back then.
He had further added, "I know Salman," continues Shetty, "He is a fantastic human being. He [Khan] says he made a call or two. But he says he wasn't abusive. I get irked with some seniors, for example, when they come late on the sets. But I still hero worship them. Where is the question of Salman getting insecure about his career? Filmmakers keep going back to Salman."
Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali had described Salman Khan as the best human being and said that Vivek had committed the biggest blunder ever by any actor in Mumbai. He had further said that he was scared of Vivek after his outburst and would never be able to work with him in the future. "Vivek must learn discretion from stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Ajay Devgan," he added.
Taking a dig at Vivek, Bhansali had said, "I may shout at him on the sets and he may call a press conference against me. All the heroines should touch his feet for protecting their dignity. If Vivek's dog has dysentery tomorrow, we should be prepared to hear Vivek talk about it on camera for three hours."
Post his infamous brawl with Salman, Vivek's acting career had started losing the limelight. In 2017, Vivek had opened up about his downfall in Bollywood and said that even after delivering a hit, no movie offers would come to him.
"When my personal life got messed up, I couldn't keep my eye on the ball. Even if I gave a hit, work wouldn't follow. Shootout at Lokhandwala became a huge hit, but I sat at home for a year after that," he revealed, suggesting that no one was approaching Vivek for roles as Salman had instructed all not to.
However, after splitting up with Aishwarya in 2005, Vivek had apologised to Salman during a public performance in 2007, but it failed to amuse Salman.
Well, as they say, you must never mess up things with Salman.
