EXCLUSIVE: Ankahi Kahaniya actor Abhishek Banerjee talks about battling judgements and loneliness

Netflix’ anthology titled Ankahi Kahaniya, was recently released which was directed by ace filmmakers Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Abhishek Chaubey, Saket Chaudhary. The series starred Kunal Kapoor, Zoya Hussain, Rinku Rajguru, Delzad Hiwale, Abhishek Banerjee, Nikhil Dwivedi, Palomi. We sat down for a candid chat with one of the stars of Ankahi Kahaniya Abhishek Banerjee and director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari. We asked the actor about how he drew inspiration from his real-life for his role as Pradeep who is immensely lonely in his life while battling with the judgement from the world due to his habit of talking to a mannequin.

Talking about his character, Abhishek told Bollywood Bubble, “I think, I took clues from my life. I always take some kind of clue from my life for my character so that it becomes more relatable for me and then move ahead with performing the character. So I am the only child in my family. I never had anybody to talk to since childhood. Single kids, they always have a habit of talking to themselves, probably motivating themselves, probably having those big monologues internally. Because there is nobody to talk to, no brother or sister. Even in Bombay, even though you know a lot of people, even though you have a lot of friends who you would meet at social gatherings but I dont know how many times do we really hold strong conversations.”

Abhishek moved to Mumbai many years back and talking about his move to Bombay while adjusting to a totally alien city the actor said, “It took a lot of time, I think it took over 6-7 years to actually settle in. The first 5-6 years was always about ki ‘main Delhi se hoon’ ‘I am a Delhi boy’ and I had all my theatre batchmates in Bombay. So I would talk and chill with them. I didn’t really make any Bombay circle. Also when I started with my casting company and started working as a casting director. I had my thing which I told Anmol also that we will just work and go back home, we won’t go to these parties. Somehow we never enjoyed that, we wanted the comfort of true friends.”

We had further asked the actor, just like his character in Ankahi Kahaniya, what were the social judgements that he had to battle in his life and career, Banerjee said, “It started with me taking English Honours in college because my father wanted me to become an engineer. So it was him and his friends and his relatives and it all became about them and not about my choice so the judgement started there and then theatre, then acting. Of course, not getting it through, starting to cast and not understanding it. When I started casting, many of my actor friends were judging me like, ‘Oh he has become corrupt now, he just wants money’, ‘He is not really in it for the art’. I had my own priorities. From marrying someone who is three years older than me, also from another religion to wanting to become an actor.”

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Also Read: Ankahi Kahaniya REVIEW: Abhishek, Zoya, Kunal, Rinku and Delzad’s nuanced performance in Netflix anthology is worth a watch

Bhavna Agarwal

Assistant Editor at Bollywood Bubble. An ambivert who is currently high on K-dramas and K-Pop. A forever Bollywood fan, who continues to gush over solid stories and characters. Hit me up for a fine conversation over chai.

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