If films like ‘Chhava’ are running, then believe me, in the coming years, grand films will also be made on the stories of the heroes of Rajasthan. Rajasthan’s soil is not just full of history, but also has real stories for cinema. They just need to be presented in the right way. This is what actor and casting director Abhishek Banerjee, who came to Jaipur to host the IIFA 2025 award show, said. Abhishek Banerjee, who played the character of Jana in the film Stree and Hathauda Tyagi in Paatal Lok Season 1, had a special conversation with Bhaskar. Read the full interview Bhaskar: IIFA was held in Jaipur for the first time. How was the experience of hosting here? Abhishek: I have hosted at IIFA Rocks (Dubai) before this. Hosting here has been a very entertaining experience for me. While hosting, I keep in mind that the audience who have come to watch the award show should not get bored. I try to engage the audience instead of the script. I am an entertainer by profession, so it is my duty to entertain people a lot. Talking about Rajasthan and Jaipur, it is one of my favourite states. The culture, food, people, everything is amazing. Rajasthan and Jaipur are international destinations where people come from different cities of the world. I am very happy that we are celebrating the 25th year of IIFA in Jaipur. Bhaskar: How was the journey from being a casting director to an actor? Abhishek: I would not call this journey a struggle, yes I had to work a lot. Ever since I came to Mumbai, I was busy doing some work or the other. I always did my work with dedication. I have completely dedicated myself to cinema and the film industry. The love I am getting from people today is because of my dedication and hard work towards work and acting. The industry also trusted me, that is why I was able to move so far. I am very thankful to IIFA for recognising me and giving me such a big platform where I am hosting in front of such a large audience. Bhaskar: How much are you inspired by Irrfan Khan’s work? Abhishek: I am very unlucky that I did not get a chance to work with him, let alone talk to him. He was such a great artist that even after his death, our generation is getting inspired by his work and the coming generation will also keep taking inspiration. His departure is a big loss for our industry. If he were alive today, he would have ruled the world with his work in acting for the next few years. I just want to say that artists like us are moving forward by taking inspiration from him. Bhaskar: Apart from comedy, which is the genre where you want to show the variety of your acting skills? Abhishek: After the love I have received from people for the character of Jana in the film Stree, I fear that I might get exposed in any other film. The audience will say, hey, he is doing the same thing. I fear that the audience might start predicting your comedy timing that yes, now he will speak like this. Govinda and Akshay Kumar sir are my inspiration in terms of comedy. Apart from comedy, I feel that I would like to explore myself in human drama and social drama. I enjoy doing relationship dramas. The web series Paatal Lok based on a real story was a social crime drama. Stolen is my upcoming film. The entire film was shot in Pushkar. That too is a film inspired by a real life incident. Such characters appeal to me more. Bhaskar: Did being a casting director help you in acting? Abhishek: Absolutely. Being a casting director, I could understand the need of the director of the film, what he wants from a character. I have spent a lot of time in the audition room with actors. Making them rehearse dialogues or speaking dialogues for them I have already done many different types of characters in the audition room. Those seven-eight years of hard work are benefiting me in acting today. Bhaskar: Now spy universes, horror comedy universes are being created in India too. Is our audience ready for this? Abhishek: I believe that while creating a universe, we should not forget our roots. What happens is that while creating a universe, we often try to make part 2 or 3 bigger than the first. If the first film was shot in Darjeeling or Goa, then the next part is being shot in China or Thailand. This notion has to be changed. Our job in creating a universe is not to make the film grand. Our job is to take the film forward. Look at Drishyam-1 and Drishyam-2. The same characters, the same small town, but how the story and the journey of the characters progress. Similarly, if Drishyam-2 was taken to Singapore or Bangkok, then that film would not be Drishyam-2. I think it is very important to understand that we do not need to make it bigger, we should just take the story forward. Because the audience is already connected to the characters. Only then will the pattern of the universe move forward. Bhaskar: You catch the accent very well, how do you like the Rajasthani language? Abhishek: The character I have played in the film Veda speaks the Rajasthani language. The dialect trainer had told me that there is similarity in Rajasthani and Haryanvi words, but the accent is different. Many people speak Rajasthani in Haryanvi style in films, but the way of speaking Rajasthani is exactly like the gait of a camel. The Rajasthani dialect is also spoken in the same way as a camel walks on sand. Bhaskar: What is the special thing about Rajasthan, which you feel has not been explored yet? Abhishek: There are stories left in the forts, palaces, culture of Rajasthan, which can be shown on the silver screen. The roots of the cultural heritage of Rajasthan are very deep. The kings and Maharajas may not be there now, but those traditions still exist in the royal families. I feel this is a very important part not only of Rajasthan, but of the country. We go to Greece to see architecture, but we do not come to see the architecture of Rajasthan. Our own people do not travel to their country. We have Jal Mahal of Jaipur, Hawa Mahal, the royal palaces of Udaipur, the grandeur of Gajner Palace, the world’s most beautiful sunset in Jaisalmer. I feel that the young generation should definitely explore Rajasthan. Bhaskar: South films are performing well at the box office, what do you think is the reason? Abhishek: There has been a technical evolution in the South industry which is clearly visible in their films. The cinematography, VFX, editing there is amazing. Bahubali and KGF are examples of this. Period dramas are being made a lot. Their characters are connected to the common people. The hero of Pushpa is not a hero with six pack abs, he is a coolie. Which Bachchan sahab has already done in the 70s. Somewhere we had shown this path, but the South industry is presenting it in a different way. Directors like Prashant Neel, Sukumar and actors like Allu Arjun also consider Amitabh Bachchan as their inspiration. We also have to understand that we should not make our industry a foreign industry but let it remain an Indian industry and keep making films related to the common audience in it. Bhaskar: Chhava film is earning a lot of name. Why are films not made on big historical characters of Rajasthan? Abhishek: It takes a lot of money to make a historical period drama. It is a big challenge for the makers to recover that much money. Now that films like Chhava are doing well, a kind of culture has come into India. I hope that in the coming years, such period drama films will be made on the great characters of Rajasthan. In which famous battles of this place will be shown. If the audience spends money on such films, then the industry will also get motivation. If I talk about myself, I would like to play the character of martyr Khudiram Bose on screen in a period drama. At the age of 21, he hanged himself and said that if no one is coming after hearing your voice, then you should go yourself. His words were not just for gaining freedom, but are also for life that if you feel something is right, then go alone to do it, people will automatically join you. Bhaskar: Are original stories not being written in the industry now that the trend of remakes is increasing? Abhishek: Actually the process of making a film is very expensive, so the first thought is that if we are making a film then it is very important to earn money, somewhere it is happening because of that. This is the reason why people trust those subjects more which are already hit or are already popular. The idea behind it would be that if this story has worked there then it will work here too. The fact is that India is a country full of diversity. It is not necessary that the same subject will work in another place as well. Because there is a lot of difference in the society. It is not necessary that a story of Bihar will work in Punjab or a story of Punjab will work in Bengal. It is very important to understand this difference. Many films have been made by Hollywood inspired by Spanish or French stories but they make them according to the society and culture of their country. This is where we are making a mistake. People think why should we work hard or why should we pay more money to the writer? We are suffering because of this thinking. As an industry, we are working for the people. The audience can be fooled once or twice, not again and again. As an industry, till a few years ago, we used to rule that there is no bigger entertainer than us. Now so many entertainers have come on Insta and YouTube. Now our competition is with that new medium which is completely new. People take out 2 hours watching a 1 minute reel, then why should they go to the cinema hall for those two hours? We will have to work hard to take the audience to the cinema hall. As a true artist, we will have to prove ourselves again and again in front of the audience. …. Also read this news related to IIFA Awards… IIFA in Jaipur – ‘Laapta Ladies’ gets 10 awards: Shahrukh-Madhuri danced together in the award function after 27 years; Rekha-Rakesh Roshan also danced International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards ceremony was held in Jaipur on Sunday. The film ‘Laapta Ladies’ won the maximum number of 10 awards. The Best Film Award was given to Kiran Rao, Aamir Khan for the film ‘Laapta Ladies’. Read the full news…
