Animal actor Suresh Oberoi recalls getting paid more than Anil Kapoor, talks about 'insecure' stars

Veteran actor and father of Vivek Oberoi, Suresh Oberoi recently featured in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal. He played Ranbir Kapoor’s grandfather in it. Suresh won the 1987 National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Ketan Mehta’s film Mirch Masala.

The Indian government introduced a new category for Suresh Oberoi

Recalling the same, Suresh told Lehren Retro, “Even the government of India accepted when my film Mirch Masala got released. It was a hit film. Somebody said ‘How can you give the best actor award to him? He’s not even an actor?’ The government created a role that day of Best Supporting Actor and then I got a National Award.”

Suresh Oberoi’s reaction to winning the coveted award

He said, “I started crying. I couldn’t talk on the phone. I gave it to my wife. It was streaming on the TV that night. Anil Kapoor called me from Shabana’s house and both of them spoke to me. I told him about the night shoot and Anil was like, ‘cancel, aaj itna bada din hai. (Cancel the shoot, today is such a big day)’”.

When Suresh was paid more than Anil Kapoor in Thikana

He said, “I had taken Rs 25,000 more than Anil Kapoor in Thikana. With Mahesh Bhatt. I was getting good money, a good price. The only thing is few people didn’t want me to work with him. Imagine somebody is a better actor than me and there is someone who can steal the show from them, then what will they say?”

Suresh added, “They will say, ‘nahi yar tang karta hai woh.’ They will say anything. They won’t say, ‘I am scared.’ But, there were people like Jeetendra and Mithun, who had no problems. They were not insecure.” Coming back to Animal, the movie also starred Bobby Deol, Anil Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna in important roles.