In this episode of 'The Stars Live Here,' Abhishek Banerjee gave The Quint a tour of his house and talked about his early days as an actor, his experience of working with Amitabh Bachchan, his friendship with Rajkummar Rao and Varun Dhawan, and much more.
Speaking about giving auditions after he moved to Mumbai, the actor said, “The problem is never about whether you fit in a part or not, it’s about how they say it. Sometimes people are quite rude about it. When that happens, it hurts as an artist. Wherever I went, people would talk that way and then I realised that it’s very difficult to crack it if you don’t know anyone. Very few people are looking for someone new."
He added, "For a while I thought I should forget about pursuing acting because it wasn’t happening and it had been 7-8 years (of me trying) already.”
When asked about friends he has in the industry, Banerjee said, "If I had to name someone who’s my ‘best friend’, it would be Rajkummar Rao because we’ve come from the same time and I knew him before he became an actor and I always admired all his work. He was the guy who would motivate us when we were struggling."
"I saw the culture he wants to bring on a set where he will stand behind the camera and give all the actors cues and he would expect others to do the same.”Abhishek Banerjee, Actor
About Varun Dhawan, the actor said, “Varun Dhawan is a very good friend of mine and he’s a nice human being and a very naughty human being. I always had an assumption about Bollywood stars but he made me realise that they’re also hard-working individuals and they’re not stars just because of a name."
Abhishek Banerjee has always looked up to Amitabh Bachchan, an actor he got to work with in Section 84.
"Since the day I thought about becoming an actor I was also looking up to Amitabh Bachchan. He comes from the same theatre group as me and I joined that college because of him."Abhishek Banerjee, Actor
"(While working with him) I saw one thing – I saw that someone at his stature still works as a labourer. I would call him a labour on set because he’s working hard all those hours. He still has that curiosity," the actor said of the experience.
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