As an actor, I love seeing my movies on the big screen. There is no other experience quite like it. But I definitely have to say that with OTT there is more freedom. People are willing to explore more stories and there are lesser restrictions.
character and the movie as such is very socially relevant. I actually got in touch with my father regarding the role. My father is a Paramilitary officer and has served in the CISF and NSG and has played a lot of sports in his professional career. I wanted to check with him about gender testing in sports and he did tell me about how it is very prominent. He also threw light on so many athletes who have to go through humiliation and end up getting depressed because of this procedure. He encouraged me to take this movie up and be a part of this
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NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2021
Reflecting The South-Asian Lifestyle
Photos: Abhishek Bannerjee/Instagram, Amazon Prime Video
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subject,” shares Abhishek who is said to return to the horror-comedy genre with the movie, Bhediya. He will be seen reprising his role from Stree. In a recent interview, Abhishek shared that he had to memorize lengthy lines and dialogues for the movie. For which he agrees and says, “I actually shadowed my lawyer friend quite a bit to understand their personalities inside and outside the court. I also understood that lawyers also rehearse lines and practice before they present in front of the court, the process is pretty much similar to that of actors. I did the same. I am not great at memorizing lines but for this one, I had to.” While on the topic, we asked Abhishek about his experience working with Taapsee and he had only good things to say about the actress, “In one word, it was just easy. She works very hard and rehearses a lot before coming to the set. Most importantly, I was amused by her physical transformation. It is amazing when an actor puts in her all for a role and it is lovely working with such actors,” he tells us. Abhishek has tried his hands on everything from comedy to horror to thrillers, ask him his favourite genre, and he says, “I love being part of thrillers, there is a certain mystery to it.” Before entering the movie business, Abhishek learned the tricks of the craft by performing in plays. He worked on
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several theatre plays and developed his own acting process. What is this process and he says, “I read the script and don’t over think the character? I like to be prepared of course but I use my time to learn about the script and the character’s mindset.” Abhishek being an actor and a casting director has his own journey when it comes to choosing a script. The actor comes with a tonne of experience and he tells us how “I read a script like a story. Right from the time I was a child, I grew up reading a lot of Panchatantra stories, and somewhere I started reading books from different languages. I have read books in Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, and Hindi of course. I liked reading stories and when language is no barrier, you can read and get to learn about so many stories. So when a script comes to me, I read the story like a child. There is not much of a strategy behind the choice, if the child in me likes the story and enjoys it, I go for it. The idea is to make the audience want to listen to a story and if the script can do that, then I am all for it.” Having seen his movies on the big screen as well as on OTT, we asked Abhishek what his favourite medium was. He quickly responded saying, “As an audience, I love watching movies on the big screen. As an actor, I love seeing my movies on the big screen. There is no other experience quite like it. But I definitely have to say that with OTT there is more freedom. People are willing to explore more stories and there are lesser restrictions.”
