‘If somebody is suggesting something sleazy, you need to take your decision and you know, leave from there.’
‘No amount of work is more important than your dignity.’
Photograph: Kind courtesy Abhishek Banerjee/Instagram
Key Points
- Abhishek Banerjee has quit casting to focus entirely on his acting career.
- He advises aspiring actors to learn from rejections, work on feedback, and understand that casting rooms are performance spaces.
- Banerjee is actively creating his own acting opportunities and has several upcoming projects, including Mirzapur and Legacy.
Abhishek Banerjee made a career for himself as a casting agent before acting nudged him in another direction.
Since then, we’ve seen him in many shows like Paataal Lok, Mirzapur and Rana Naidu, and films like the Stree movies, Stolen, Bhediya, and Thamma.
Today, he has decided to focus more on acting, and so, quit his founding company, Casting Bay.
Yes, that’s right, Abhishek will no longer be a casting agent.
“Fortunately for me and unfortunately for the company, what was happening is that I was getting more and more involved with my acting jobs and had to give more priority to it,” Abhishek tells Subhash K Jha. “I was not able to give as much time and presence which a casting director needs to give for a project’s casting.”
Why have you decided to quit as a casting director?
Casting was a learning curve for me. When I started that as a job, I didn’t take it very seriously early on.
I took it seriously after a few years, when I sensed success with say, a Dirty Picture or when Mirzapur happened. That’s when Anmol Ahuja and I at Casting Bay really thought, why not take it to a more organised direction?
So then, why quit?
Fortunately for me and unfortunately for the company, what was happening is that I was getting more and more involved with my acting jobs and had to give more priority to it. I was not able to give as much time and presence which a casting director needs to give for a project’s casting. So I thought it’s better that I focus on acting.
‘Take rejections wisely’
IMAGE: Abhishek Banerjee in his movies. Photograph: Kind courtesy Abhishek Banerjee/Instagram
As an experienced casting director, what is your advice to struggling actors?
As a casting director, I think what I’ve understood is that casting rooms are also a workspace. It’s a performance space and also about luck sometimes. So take rejections wisely and learn from your auditions.
Listen to your casting directors or whoever is giving you feedback because that feedback will help you in your next audition.
It’s very important to work on the feedback. If you’re not getting selected after multiple auditions, you probably need to change the style or the way you are acting.
Audition rooms are a big hint towards the work you’re putting in your craft.
‘Don’t do meetings in coffee shops or homes or hotel rooms’
IMAGE: Abhishek Banerjee in his movies. Photograph: Kind courtesy Abhishek Banerjee/Instagram
Is the casting couch a reality?
Yes. Sexual favours are a reality in today’s world.
Wherever there is power, it will always happen, whether it’s casting or in different fields, apart from our industry. We see so much happening around, not all of them are from the industry.
So, yes of course, it happens. You have to dodge it in a very simple way.
Don’t do meetings in coffee shops or homes or hotel rooms. If anybody is calling for you for those meetings, just avoid it. Push for meetings in offices. That’s the most important thing. Then, be your own judge.
If somebody is suggesting something sleazy, you need to take your decision and you know, leave from there. No amount of work is more important than your dignity.
‘The secret recipe for a successful film is heart’
IMAGE: Abhishek Banerjee in his movies. Photograph: Kind courtesy Abhishek Banerjee/Instagram
You are known to be a notorious scene stealer. Does that come in the way of your being cast with undertalented superstars?
That’s every actor’s job. We have to be the scene-stealer in the film. That’s why I think we get paid.
What’s the fun if we are not adding to the scene rightly?
But I don’t think that’s really stopping me from working with anyone because I know a few stars, who recommend my name for films. Usually, it’s always a producer or director’s call. Rarely is it an actor’s call. I mean I would like to believe that.
Also, I think I’m finding my own space, and I’m very glad about that. I’m not really worried or insecure about anything.
What do you think is the secret recipe for a successful film?
I think the secret recipe for a successful film is heart.
No matter how much mind and logic we use in screenplays and everything, the heart and soul has to be in the right place. Usually, if you are true to the soul of the film, the film works. That’s what I have noticed.
‘I needed to take that pressure off’
IMAGE: Abhishek Banerjee in Mirzapur. Photograph: Kind courtesy Abhishek Banerjee/Instagram
Are you tempted to create your own acting opportunities?
Yes. I am doing it after Stolen. It has given me a little confidence and the gang is ready to start their next film. So hopefully, by next year, we will start another films.
What do we see you in next?
There’s a lot in the pipeline. Many projects are going to release, so I’m real excited. Also, taking on the role of… you can say protagonists… these are films backing on me.
So yes, it’s very exciting for me. That’s why I needed to take that pressure off; that’s why the casting was no more an option.
The forthcoming releases are Mirzapur, the Tamil show Legacywith R Madhavan and Nimisha Sajayan. It’s a pan India show, and will be dubbed in Hindi, Telugu and other languages.
I have a Sudeep Sharma show.
I have a film with TVF called Kiraidar.
Then, there’s a film called Baaghi Bechare, directed by Sumit Purohit. It is a beautiful satire set in a village.
There’s an independent film with Bharat Bala, based in the Kumbh and Mahakumbh. Neeraj Kabi and Shahana Goswami are shooting with me now.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
