Recently, Vivek Oberoi had plenty of time to study the interiors of his vanity van. Having being alerted that Salman Khan was on the premises, he locked himself up in his van for a good 75 minutes.
In a historic fiasco, Vivek had taken on Salman years ago. Obviously, the memory is bound to rankle and he wouldn't want a repeat performance of the same.
In this particular instance, he had just finished performing for a show and retreated to his van to change before leaving.
Salman, who may or may not have known about Vivek's presence, showed up and was chatting a few metres away with his friends before he went on stage for the grand finale. Vivek's pals rushed to his van to tell him about Salman's presence.
The former, having learnt the hard way that discretion is the better part of valour, decided to stay put in his van. He was in a rush to go partying with his friends but for over an hour, Vivek was left twiddling his thumbs and counting the minutes.
Only when Salman left to perform did Vivek emerge from his van. Obviously the same thoughtful aides played watchdog and gave him the green signal when the road was clear.
This is not the first time that Salman and Vivek have been present at the same venue at the same time.
At Ramesh Taurani's party last year, Vivek had exited in a rush when he saw Salman Khan arriving. He was in such a hurry to leave that he asked his driver to move so that he could take control of the steering. We are not surprised that Vivek has been trying to keep away from the moody Salman. Repeated attempts to apologise have failed, so naturally he expects a confrontation when they come face to face.
At an awards function in 2007, Vivek had taken the opportunity to show Salman how apologetic he was — Vivek had grabbed his ears and bowed, but Salman had just shaken his head. Vivek remained unavailable for comment. But his manager Raj said, “Vivek left in time. He had to attend a get-together. After him, Lara and Shahid performed. Then came Salman. So there was no question of confrontation.”
