Actor Abhishek Banerjee: Many times people thought I am Mamata Banerjee’s nephew on Twitter

Actor Abhishek Banerjee no more needs an introduction, his works—Stree, Ajeeb Daastaans, Pataal Lok and now Bhediya speak volumes. In an exclusive conversation, Abhishek shared who is his acting inspiration in Bollywood.

Also read: Abhishek Banerjee says he ‘felt bad’ when people recognised Divyendu Sharma but not him

“Akshay Kumar is an inspiration. He was my favourite hero when I was growing up,” Abhishek mentioned. But, isn’t it Amitabh Bachchan as claimed his previous interviews? He clarified, “My acting teacher is Amitabh Bachchan and wanted to become an actor because of him. I used to watch Akshay’s films, Khiladi, and Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi because only a few films of Amitabh’s films were released at that time.”

Both Abhishek Banerjee and Akshay Kumar hail from Delhi. “His humour and comic timings are from Delhi. I relate to it. Delhi is a hilarious city compared to Bombay. So, I used to think about what Akshay would do in a scene during the Bhediya shoot. It was my warm-up to get into the character.”

In Amar Kaushik’s horror-comedy, Abhishek revived his role as Jaana, aka JD, from the Stree universe. This time, he shared the screen space with Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon in the fictional world of werewolves.

“I am actually thankful to Amar Kaushik that he made me repeat my character in a different universe. This is the first time it has happened. Marvel, Avengers and DC walo ne kiya hain but never in India. Taking that risk was also very challenging,” he said.

“I was quite scared. Because I was wondering how can I pull off the same character in a different film. I had to be the same character all over again and also not give away too much. This is tremendous pressure for an actor. I didn’t have any examples from Bollywood to look up to. I could only do it just by copying myself but again it can’t be repetitive. I couldn’t fathom this could happen.”

Abhishek believes that the tag of being a star might be limited to some, however, he prefers to focus on just being an actor. “Everybody has an equal share and film. This is very important for the growth of our industry. We are in a transition phase. It isn’t time to do above-average work. A good film can only happen when a good team comes together. In the history of Indian cinema, I have not seen a single case where someone can say ‘yeh film akele iss admi ne chalaya.’ Everyone is getting their own worth now,” the 37-year-old actor shared.

Abhishek has an array of films under his credit, ranging from Apurva, Rana Naidu, Dream Girl 2, Vakil Babu and now a special appearance in Qala. The actor who is only 4-years-old in Bollywood, now plans to focus on quality than quantity of projects, for his own exploration.

Did you know there’s another Abhishek Banerjee? The actor reveals he has been confused with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader a lot of times. “Many times people have tagged me on Twitter thinking I am Mamata Banerjee’s nephew. It’s such a common name.” Besides this, there’s another Abhishek Banerjee in the industry who has written Anushka Sharma’s Pari. “People actually thought I lied to them. They thought I didn’t tell them about scriptwriting to avoid working with them. I had to prove it to them. I am happy that slowly and steadily my name is becoming more and more known. But I wouldn’t change my name,” the actor chuckled.