Abhishek Banerjee: Unnecessary demands by certain stars, good actors get peanuts

Abhishek Banerjee has had ample experience of how showbiz works, earlier in the capacity of a renowned casting director and now as an actor. As his career picks up pace with Stree 2 and Rana Naidu 2 next, he says he is enjoying both, “Acting is not always about glam. It is a very spiritual journey. You have to walk alone, experience things by yourself. You keep practising. Not everybody is seeking gold, some are happy with what they have.”
This leads us to ask about the current concern around budgets of films going haywire because of the rising fees of actors and paraphernalia costs. Is it true, we ask. Banerjee corrects us, “You are talking about stars, not actors. That’s completely a star thing, one can’t blame actors for that. The producers have to decide.”
As for the extra demands made by some actors today which adds to the budget of a film, the 39-year-old says he doesn’t need to be an actor to comment on it- he has seen it as a casting director too. “I have been casting for movies and shows for many years now. So many unnecessary demands are made by certain stars. What happens because of that is actors ko paise nahi milte. I would be told by makers ‘kam paise mein cast karo’. I don’t know if the stars know this reality or not. Sometimes good actors get peanuts for a show or a film. Star value of course gets people to the theatres and buy tickets, but at the same time, an actor also adds same value to a story, one cannot neglect that. One can’t pay a star’s bodyguard more than an actor’s daily wage,” tells us Banerjee, who is most popular for playing the role of Hathoda Tyagi in the series Paatal Lok.
He continues, “Mujhe yaad hai hamare paas casting mein ek difficult situation aati thi. We would be told ‘hamare paas budget itna hi hai lekin achha actor chahiye’ I would be like ‘achha actor kam paise mein kyun kaam kare, aur kaise kare? Kam paison mein how do I convince a good actor to be a part of a particular project. It’s sad, it shouldn’t be that.”