Stree, Dream Girl, Made in China and now Bala. If you are thinking why the recent hits have been lined up, then here’s a clue — one man has been part of all these phenomenal successes, Abhishek Banerjee.
Fresh off Bala’s triumph, here’s a quick chat The Telegraph had with Ajju in between shots…
How does it feel after back-to-back successes?
It feels like a dream. And secretly I just feel lucky and blessed to be a part of such good films. It’s not everyday that you find yourself among such talented people. I am just looking forward to continuing being a part of great cinema and hope they are successful in entertaining as well as enlightening the audience.
You are perhaps one of those actors who is part of mostly successful films. How are you picking up the films?
Actually, I have always believed that it’s the script that chooses an actor. A story travels for months and sometimes years in a writer’s head… then she or he builds the story to a full-fledged film script, which then travels to the producers or directors and then the search for characters begin. Again it travels to many and finds the right actor for the written characters. It’s a journey and I am glad all three - Stree, Dream Girl and Bala - travelled to me. Even a small part in Made In
China happened by chance. And I thank the universe for bringing these amazing scripts to me and allowing me to bring life to the characters.
You and Ayushmann Khurrana are on a roll. How do you find him as an actor and a star?
n The question itself makes me feel so good that I am a team of sorts with him. He is great guy. A thorough gentlemen and of course a great actor and a co-actor. I am sometimes in awe of him when I see him managing his stardom and yet keeping a steady head up there. He is rock solid in his script choices and has the capability to adapt to different characters and situations. You know when you are around someone like him, you learn a lot and also get inspired to keep pushing. I have known him for sometime now. And this man hasn’t changed and I am so happy that he is the Yuvraj Singh of Bollywood hitting back-to-back sixes.
Tell me about your upcoming films.
I am doing Dostana 2 next and also a couple of films among which one will be directed by Umesh Shukla. And yeah, some great stuff on Netflix and Amazon is going to come up next year and I can’t hold my excitement, as I play some crazy characters.
When can we see you directing? Last time we spoke you said you have it in mind. Are you working on it?
Yeah, I will direct one day as I said before but now I want to just act, keep getting into different characters, keep learning from them. Maybe one day these characters will lead me to make a film. I can only make a film when I feel strongly about it. It has to be personal. I don’t want to direct to make people happy. Whenever I do I will do it when I really want to say something to society. At this point I feel filmmakers are doing a great job in doing so. And I am the audience who is listening. Recently, two films at MAMI blew my mind. Eeb Allay Ooo! and Just Like That. Both won all the major awards there. They talk so much about what’s happening around and yet in such a simple way. Maybe one day I will make something like that.
