Abhishek Banerjee

“Casting director was a part-time thing, which later became a full-time job because there was a lack of casting directors in our industry and people were looking for professionals to do it.”

“Maybe because I am an actor-casting director, I always felt that we need good actors in the industry and we need to bring them at the top.”

“When you are a talkative and expressive person in real life, it definitely gets difficult to play someone who is so silent.”

“I have always been an Amitabh Bachchan fan.”

“All my characters have their own political thoughts of the world around. If it is not in the script, I put it into them so that they become rooted to the local flavour.”

“For me, it was always that one extra job that you do to survive in the industry. I also realised that I was not well-sculpted as an actor because I was getting a lot of rejections. I stopped acting and focused on casting.”

“When you are reacting to a good actor, your reactions become better. You get to know what to tone down and how to make yourself believe in those characters.”

“I'm cooking and taking the lockdown as an experience in cooking, trying different things. Apart from that it has been listeniing to music and watching documentaries.”

“Because I have done different kinds of roles, I hope that people take me as an actor they want to experiment with.”

“I love both acting and casting, and the idea will be to pursue both.”

“I always think of my characters as alive human beings and try to generate questions around their life and understand their socio-political background. It was a lot of questioning and reading.”

“I would not want compliments that 'I can do different roles'. I want compliments that whatever I did, I did nicely. That's how I see acting.”

“Everybody loves animals, but there is this special bond that few people have with animals and with nature.”

“It feels great when you get to contribute in a show or a film in several ways. When you see lesser known actors coming in small roles and leaving an impact, you feel like they are your babies.”

“Whether you believe it or not, you have to understand the politics. In every script, there is a political bend that the writer has included. Whether you like it or not, is on you. But it's very important to know that politics.”

“That's the beauty of creative industry that when one thing does not pan out, you have other things to do.”

“Then there is Abhimanyu Ray, Honey Trehan, Nandini Srikanth, Shanoo Sharma, we have so many great casting directors who have nothing to do with acting. You just need to have a great eye to understand the character.”

“But I was always an actor, and I kept telling myself that there will be a day when I will become a good actor.”

“I think whenever you transform from normal light-hearted characters, to characters which might be out of your comfort zone or less relatable, that is double the work and commitment required to understand the society that character comes from.”

“No, I don't think it is required for casting directors to be actors too. My mentor Gautam Kishanchandani cannot act to save his life!”