Abhishek Banerjee on how 'Pataal Lok' helped him reinvent, find interesting actors

success of Pataal Lok feels like a twofold achievement to Abhishek Banerjee, who has surprised fans with his intense portrayal of Hathoda Tyagi after comedic turns in Stree, Bala and Dream Girl.With Amazon Prime show, which is amassing critical acclaim from both reviewers as well as audiences, Banerjee pulled off double duty of being both a casting director and actor.

Casting for a show that delves into many complexities of country through an investigative story of an attempted assassination of a journalist by four suspects, was t a cakewalk, said Baneerjee. But creator Sudip Sharma's decision to go with Jaideep Ahlawat for main role of a seasoned Delhi cop Hathiram Chaudhary me things easy.

"Sudip sir was always impressed by Jaideep's work. My job was just to call him and tell him about role. All credit goes to him because he could have easily gone for a more kwn face. But when you have a good actor like Jaideep leing show, pressure is automatically off. You just need to find good actors for or roles, Banerjee told PTI in an interview.

Maybe because I am an actor-casting director, I always felt that we need good actors in industry and we need to bring m at top. w-a-days, re are so many. rise is happening because of casting world. As a casting director, you always think in terms of characters, he ded.

Banerjee, who runs Casting Bay with Anmol Ahuja, said y h some out-of--box moments like roping in singer Anup Jalota for role of a shrewd politician. But a lot of process was just about trying to find good characters in schools, atre groups and different parts of country.

"I h seen Anup Jalota ji in Bigg Boss' and I always felt he h a character in him. Similarly, Ishwaq Singh and Jagjeet Sandhu, I h seen m in or roles. "My assistant Nikita Grover found Ronaldo (Mairembam Ronaldo Singh) for Cheeni's role in Imphal after a tedious process. local atre group really helped us re. We also found kids from a atre group. t all of actors are new but y all are good", he said.

As far as playing role of main suspect is concerned, Banerjee said character's lack of dialogues me it a difficult part to audition. Sudip was familiar with his performance in indie film Ajji and felt he suited role. Banerjee said it was t difficult to understand motivation of his character, whose intensity helped actor channelise some of his own angst.

"I come from a protected family so it is hard for me to understand what makes someone a brutal killer. But I realised that this character was an achiever and he was thwarted. He was living life of a champion but his far was t because of feudal system that still exists in India. This rejection from system and society broke him.

re are so many stories that we hear of thwarted potential. That was focal point, that grief of having it in him and t even being able to live a rmal life, forget about achieving anything. His loneliness me me s. This is why he is attached to dogs because he feels understood by m.

It is also a character who has lost all hope in human interaction and communicates only when he feels like, he said. Banerjee always wanted to be an actor but when things did t fall into place, he devoted himself to casting.

That's beauty of creative industry that when one thing does t pan out, you have or things to do. For me, it was always that one extra job that you do to survive in industry. I also realised that I was t well-sculpted as an actor because I was getting a lot of rejections. I stopped acting and focused on casting.

He believes casting helped him get in touch with many talented artistes and regain his confidence back as an actor. "Slowly with talented actors around me, I started gaining back my confidence and did short films and TVF shows. n Devashish Makhija  cast me in Ajji' in a very dark role. I got my rhythm back as an actor with that role. It put a lot of eyes on me", he said.