Abhishek Banerjee Slams Casting Influencers Over Actors Based On Instagram Fame

Abhishek Banerjee, who is basking in the success of his latest film ‘Stree 2’, talked about the new trend of casting influencers in films. In a recent video interview with Sucharita Tyagi on her YouTube channel, the actor—who also works as a casting director—opened up about his career.

Abhishek also shared his thoughts on the harsh truth that influencers are often selected as actors just on the basis of their Instagram following.

During the interview, Abhishek said, “This is a reality I face as both a casting director and an actor. I have faced it recently. We need to break this habit. The problem is not influencers becoming actors. If you can act, come from anywhere and act. The problem is when you are deciding on casting a particular actor depending on their followers. You’ve seen the audition, shortlisted three people out of the lot… then you say all are good but the second one is really good. But the third one has more followers, that’s a serious problem. It will trap us. By the time the industry will come to realize that this is wrong, it will be too late.”

“One thumbnail will last how long? It will bait might attract viewers to the first episode, but no one will invest nine hours into a web show solely because someone has followers. How many are buying the ticket? Shah Rukh Khan has about 45 million followers and there are many who have more, but is there not a bigger star than him? So these comparisons based on followers are rubbish,” he added.

Alongside Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, and Pankaj Tripathi in ‘Stree 2’, Abhishek portrays Janna. At the box office, the horror-comedy film, which is a sequel to the 2018 movie ‘Stree’, has been performing particularly well.