Mumbai: Abhishek Banerjee has urged the film industry to look beyond labels such as “OTT actor” and “film actor” following the success of ‘Mirzapur: The Movie’.
The actor said the film’s performance should encourage the industry to rethink how performers are categorised, stressing that an actor’s work should not be defined by the platform or medium they come from.
“I was actually bored with the whole idea of people from the industry putting these tags about OTT and Bollywood actors and this and that… I hope that people are observing and understanding that there is no boundary, and anybody can flip any side,” Banerjee was quoted as saying by PTI.
Banerjee, who also worked as the casting director for Mirzapur, recalled the challenges he faced while casting actors for the OTT series.
“I remember casting for Mirzapur and I remember how difficult it was at that time to communicate to some of the actors that this can be the next big thing. I used to say, ‘Just read the script, if you don’t like the script, say no’. Many actors used to say that, ‘I’m not an actor to be seen on a laptop’, and now everybody wants to be a part of a good web show,” he said.
‘Mirzapur: The Movie’ is presented by Amazon MGM Studios and Excel Entertainment.
Directed by Gurmeet Singh and written by Puneet Krishna, the film is produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar, with Kassim Jagmagia and Vishal Ramchandani serving as co-producers.
The film features Ali Fazal, Pankaj Tripathi and Divyenndu, while Jitendra Kumar joins the cast as Bablu Pandit, taking over the role from Vikrant Massey.
Ravi Kishan also appears in a new role, while Rasika Dugal, Sheeba Chadha, Rajesh Tailang, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Harshita Shekhar Gaur and Shweta Tripathi reprise their respective characters.
Set in 2018, ‘Mirzapur: The Movie’ explores an untold chapter from the first season of the series, bringing back its familiar world of power struggles, rivalries and violence.
The film marks the Mirzapur universe’s first theatrical outing after the franchise began as a streaming series in 2018 and ran for three seasons.