Abhishek Banerjee started his acting journey on stage in theatre. Then he moved to casting direction, and eventually acting on screen. But 20 years after his last play, the actor is returning to the stage with a one-man show this month. Even after the gap, he insists the ground feels familiar. “It feels like homecoming but it’s also making me nervous as I am getting on the stage after so many years. But there is also a lot of excitement as the thrill of a live audience badi mushkil se milta hai,” he says.
The last time he was on stage, he was a new artiste that nobody knew as such, but today he is a renowned name. Does that make him feel more confident about his comeback? “More than confidence, it adds a lot of responsibility. Pehle to seekh rahe the, so galtiyan log maaf kar dete the, par ab galti karenge to log gaali denge. The fear of being judged is more now,” he responds.
Having done theatre with artistes like Divyenndu, Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub, Ali Abbas Zafar and Himanshu Sharma, Abhishek Banerjee wants to use his influence to propagate theatre. “Since the time I have been in films, I have observed that performing on stage just means going there and singing and dancing. Artistes even go abroad and do that, so I thought why can’t we make theatre cool where actors go back and do stage shows all across the nation, and even abroad. That’s the idea with this play, and maybe start a new trend,” he says.
The actor’s play is titled Tu Kya Hai? It is Abhishek’s way of figuring out his identity as an actor today, in a comedic way. “Why do actors like Rajkummar Rao remember their acting school or theatre days? It’s because that was the time they enjoyed acting the most. But in this industry, it becomes more about glamour, and how many events and red carpets you can do. It stems out of peer pressure, and you have to do it,” he says, adding that this had been troubling him. “Your time gets so much wasted in all these peripheral activities, that you don’t get time to do your acting homework. That thing had been bothering me in the past few years. I knew I needed to do something more which is related to acting,” he says.
Abhishek elaborates, “Tu Kya Hai is a simple question which I am asking myself. Am I an actor, a celebrity, a star or what? I want to know why actors act, and why is it such a big deal in India to come on the screen? It’s my adrak ki chai se matcha tak ka safar, as main matcha ko abhi tak puri tarah se apna nahi paya hun.”
The actor admits that today being an actor isn’t as important as proving you are an actor with peripheral things. “I question how to fit in as an actor in this industry and how to make people believe you are an actor? To be an actor you need to build perception. I was in Europe recently, and while I was walking, people came up to me asking, ‘aap akele kaise, aap to actor ho?’ So, you can’t even walk alone if you are an actor? Bachpan mein sikhate the apna kaam swayam karo, but aaj ke time pe agar aap actor ho, to aap apna kaam swayam nahi kar sakte. These labels regarding acting and stardom, is what I want to understand through the play,” he ends.
