"Profits For A Quarter, Purpose For Life": Vivek Oberoi's Business Mantra

Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi has revealed he values assets more than money and prioritises long-term commitments over short-term gains.

"I realised very quickly that I don't care about money as much as I care about assets," Oberoi told NDTV Profit on Saturday. "That's the first question I ask any founder who comes to work with me. 'Do you want to make money or build wealth?' If he said, 'I want to make money,' I said goodbye. If he said, 'I want to build wealth,' I said, 'Okay, let's consider a partnership.' Because I always believe that at the end of the day, profits are for a quarter, but purpose is for a lifetime."

Son of veteran actor Suresh Oberoi, Vivek has carved a niche for himself in business alongside his acting career. He reportedly has a Rs 1,200 crore empire today.

Asked about his business journey, he said, "For me necessity was the mother of all invention. I was 15-16 years old back in an all-boys school called Mayo College, and my father put me on a 500-rupee pocket money, and I thought that was a lot of money because I came from a boarding school where you had to sign for everything. Invisibly, Dad was paying for it. There was no price tag on anything for me. So there was no perspective."

He continued, "The first week or 10 days in college, I went out for my first date, and my entire month's pocket money was over, was finished. And my dad, thank him so much today for it, to put discipline and values in me. At that time I didn't thank him, but today I do. He said, you had to manage your budget, and you messed it up. You suffer it now. So you figure out how."

Vivek Oberoi recounted how he first discovered his entrepreneurial spirit during his teenage years. He explained that being part of his target group helped him identify a real, genuine problem that needed solving. To address it, he developed a concept called "Care Bear Arch Bears." Oberoi detailed how he went through the entire process, from sourcing the bears to coordinating with a manufacturing plant and creating concept papers, to launch the product.

The initiative proved to be a huge success.

"I remember in the days where my monthly pocket money was 500 rupees; in that single day I must have made some Rs 21,000 to Rs 22,000 profit net. So, that's how I started, and then when I realised I knew how to make money, I kept repeating it. There was a high in it. There was a kick in it. But then I wanted to understand how to invest it, and I was studying economics," he said.

Vivek Oberoi wanted to see if economic concepts worked in real life, not just for exams. He approached a businessman, Sada, to learn firsthand about stock management, financing, and creating mutually beneficial deals. Oberoi called this a "dolphin version" of business, collaborative rather than cutthroat. By aligning with partners, he earned 6-7 per cent monthly returns and learnt to navigate ups and downs together, forming the foundation of his early business philosophy.

"If there's a bad month, we didn't make enough money. It's okay. We would cover up in other months. So that's how I started," he said.

Vivek Oberoi gained fame with movies like Masti, Omkara, Krrish 3, and Grand Masti. He married Priyanka Alva Oberoi in 2010, and the couple has two children.