‘Thought Career Was Over’: Abhishek Banerjee on Being Fired From ‘Agneepath'

Abhishek Banerjee has appeared in films like 'Stree 2', 'Bhediya', 'Vedaa', and shows like 'Paatal Lok'.

Actor Abhishek Banerjee, who had started his career as a casting director back in 2010, revealed in an interview that he was fired from Agneepath. Banerjee told Siddharth Kanan, “We were fired from Agneepath. We were casting for Agneepath, it was then taken over by Jogi (Mallang) bhai. Why were we removed? Because Karan sir didn’t like our casting.”

Agneepath was Karan Malhotra’s directorial debut and was produced by Dharma Productions. The film starred Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt, and Rishi Kapoor among others.

Banerjee added, “We were casting Anurag Kashyap-type actors. He didn’t like it and said, ‘Nikal jao humaari film se‘ (Get out of our film!). We thought our career was barbaad, khatam (destroyed, over) because we were thrown out of Dharma (Productions). We thought we were done, but thankfully, we survived.”

The actor was also quoted by Free Press Journal as saying, “It was a Dharma film, before that I did Dirty Picture. It was a big film, and I was on cloud nine when I got a Dharma film. The casting began and we were at that time, Anurag Kashyap type Gangs of Wasseypur's characters. They wanted to cast villains in Agneepath, and we were there but it did not suit them. Karan Johar ko laga inko thodi khada karunga mein Hrithik ke samne, (I can’t make them stand in front of Hrithik Roshan); they wanted some kind of presence.”

Abhishek Banerjee had two of his films release on the same day – 15 August. He reprised his role of Jana in Stree 2 and also starred as the main antagonist in the Sharvari and John Abraham-starrer Vedaa.