Vivek Oberoi was addressing students in Gujarat's Vadodara.
When Vivek Oberoi decides to step into somebody's shoes, he goes the whole hog. After playing the role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a controversial movie, the actor has now disclosed that he won't mind being the BJP candidate from Gujarat's Vadodara in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections if he decides to take the plunge into politics.
Vadodara was PM Modi's constituency of choice before he decided on moving to Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi.
Mr Oberoi made the remark while participating in an interactive session with students of Parul University to promote the Omung Kumar-directed PM Narendra Modi, which is expected to get an April 11 launch. Incidentally, that would also be the first day of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
"If I join politics, I might think of contesting from Vadodara in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. That's just because of the love and affection the people gave PM Narendra Modi when he contested from here," the actor said. He was recently included in the BJP's list of star campaigners for Gujarat.
Mr Oberoi told students that he observed the Prime Minister's body language and oratory mannerisms to prepare for the role. "PM Narendra Modi is an inspiring film about a man who has become the Prime Minister of the country and one of the world's biggest leaders without any backing or caste politics," he said, adding that it took him 16 days to finalise the perfect look.
The Congress views the matter differently. It has dismissed the biopic as a "bogus film of a flop hero, a flop producer, made on a flop person who has proved to be a zero".
However, the movie's April 11 opening could be affected by a petition in Supreme Court that seeks a stay on its release until the end of the Lok Sabha elections to ensure that it does not influence voters. Although PM Narendra Modi was initially supposed to be launched on April 5, its makers decided to postpone the date in view of technical issues involving the Censor Board.
The film also stars Boman Irani, Darshan Kumaar, Zarina Wahab, Manoj Joshi, Prashant Narayanan, Barkha Bisht Sengupta, Akshat R Saluja, Anjan Shrivastav, Rajendra Gupta and Yatin Karyekar.
(With inputs from PTI)