Abhishek Banerjee.
Do you remember ‘Hammer Tyagi’ and ‘Stree’ and ‘Stree 2’ of ‘Patal Lok’? These characters played by Abhishek Banerjee will always be memorable. But, do you know that despite making a lot of debut in acting, Abhishek has been associated with the film industry for more than 19 years? Yes! Abhishek is an actor as well as a famous casting director and has cast artists from Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan to Shraddha Kapoor and Zeeshan Job. Today, on the occasion of his 40th birthday, let us know how Abhishek Banerjee himself became an actor while making others a hero?
Aamir Khan’s ‘Rang De Basanti’ started
Born on 5 May 1985 in Kharagpur, West Bengal, Abhishek Banerjee’s father Alok Banerjee was an assistant commandant in the Central Industrial Security Force. Abhishek graduated from Delhi, after which he studied computer science. However, he left it in the middle and then studied English Honors from Kirodimal College in Delhi, that too only for the theater group ‘The Players’ here. While studying at Kirodimal College, Abhishek had decided to make a career in acting. He worked in DD’s show ‘School Days’ and first appeared in Aamir Khan’s film Rang De Basanti in 2006. In this film, he was one of the students who auditioned for documentary role.
Series of failures
After this, Abhishek Banerjee auditioned for Anurag Kashyap’s film ‘Dev D’ in Delhi, where he met veteran casting director Gautam Kishanchandani and his assistant Basan Wala at that time. However, Abhishek failed in the audition. But, Gautam asked him to come to Mumbai. After this, Abhishek reached Mumbai from Delhi in 2008 with a dream of becoming an actor. However, when the financial crisis came out after receiving the rejection several times, the actor thought of working in Mumbai itself. He then worked as an Assistant Casting Director in a production house for a few days. However, if he did not enjoy it, he gave up this task. After this, Gautam Kishanchandani gave him a small role in ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbai’. But even after this, Abhishek did not get acting offers.
How Abhishek became casting director
After not getting work as an actor, Abhishek again started the work of casting director and casting many big films. These include Vidya Balan’s ‘No One Killed Jessica’, ‘The Dirty Picture’, Akshay Kumar’s ‘Gabbar Is Back’, Shraddha Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapoor’s ‘Ok Jaanu’, ‘Rock On 2’, ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’, ‘Secret Superstar’ and ‘Azji’. During this, Abhishek Banerjee continued to do some small roles. He appeared in films like No One Killed Jessica, Bombay Talkies and Phillauri. The actor later opened a casting agency named ‘Casting Bay’ with Anmol Ahuja, which is one of the largest casting agencies in the industry today.
Got first big role as a villain
After working as a casting director for about eight years, in 2017, Abhishek Banerjee got the first lead role in the film ‘Ajji’. Directed by Devashish Makhija, Abhishek was seen in the role of Villain in this film. The film ‘Ajji’ was highly praised by critics and the film also dominated many award ceremonies.
Woman’s identity from ‘Jaana’
Abhishek Banerjee got the identity as an actor from the 2018 film ‘Stree’. In the film, he played the role of Rajkumar Rao’s friend ‘Jaane’. His acting and dialogue were quite a hit in the film. In the same year, he also appeared in the role of a compounder in the superhit web series ‘Mirzapur’ of Prime Video. After these two memorable performance, Abhishek Banerjee started getting offers and he appeared in films like ‘Dream Girl’, ‘Bala’ and ‘Outstorm Dastan’.
The character of ‘Hammer Tyagi’ made Abhishek unmatched
Abhishek Banerjee once again appeared in a negative role in the prime video show ‘Patal Lok’, released in 2020. In the series, he played the role of ‘Hammer Tyagi’. In this role, Abhishek Banerjee surprised everyone with his brilliant acting. After this, he also appeared in many other hit web series, including ‘Kali 2’, ‘Rana Naidu’ and ‘Aakhri Sach’. Now he is an important part of Amar Kaushik and Madock’s horror-comedy Universe. He has appeared in both the first film of this Universe in ‘Wolf’ and ‘Stree 2’. At the same time, his character in ‘Munjya’ was also seen in ‘Jana’ guest role.
