On Saturday, Vivek Oberoi suddenly decided to stay away from the press conference of his upcoming film Mission Istaanbul. All the other actors of the film attended the event. Currently, Vivek is shooting for Kumar Taurani's film in South Africa but had promised Mission Istaanbul's producer Sunil Shetty and director Apoorva Lakhia that he will attend the media interaction on July 19.

Everybody at the event was saying that it was not fair on Vivek's part to back out of the conference. Sunil and Apoorva put up a brave front and did not express their displeasure at the event. However, the inside story is that both of them are furious with Vivek.

Vivek did not even personally call Sunil and Apoorva to inform them about his absence. Vivek's business manager Amit sent a message to Apoorva's publicist Gopa that the actor will not be able to attend the event. A source said, " Sunil and Apoorva are furious. They had organised the event only after talking to Vivek."

When contacted, Sunil confirmed that Vivek did not attend the conference even though he had promised to be there. He said, "Vivek has his issues and problems. We would have loved if he had attended the event. Mission Istaanbul is an expensive project put together by Balaji Films and me."

The story goes that since the past few months, Vivek has been feeling that his co-star Zayed Khan in Mission Istaanbul has being given more prominence in the trailers. Vivek believes that Apoorva's new friendship with Zayed is affecting his status in the project. Vivek has even been telling friends how he feels betrayed by Apoorva. Apparently, he feels that he must have been given a raw deal in the final edited version of the film. "Perhaps this was Vivek's way to get back at Sunil and Apoorva," said another source.

A friend of Sunil said, "If Vivek wanted publicity and footage, this was an occasion to get some attention since he is the biggest actor in the film. He should have attended the event."

Apoorva told Mumbai Mirror that he was very angry with Vivek. He said, "The less said about Vivek, the better. The date for the press conference was set as per his request. But he didn't even inform us personally. I think that he is a big star who does not need to publicise his films. That's the way Vivek operates, I guess."

Vivek's business manager Amit was unavailable for comment. We then spoke to Amit's colleague Kajal who said that Amit wasn't even attending her calls. "I have sent him a message but he hasn't replied,” she said.

We sent a text message to Vivek but he did not reply.