‘People couldn’t believe we would cast without sex’: Abhishek Banerjee

The MeToo movement that started a few years ago shook the industry as women started speaking up against their abusers without hesitation and fear. On the flip side it exposed the dark side of the industry. Among this, the casting process, in particular, which was infamous for the practice of offering roles in exchange for sexual favours, was once again brought to the spotlight. 

When mid-day’s podcast series The Bombay Film Story hosted Stree fame, Abhishek Banerjee, who ran his own casting company, which he started in 2016 before switching to acting, we asked him about how the entire movement changed things on the ground level in the industry. Here’s what he shared… 

Abhishek Banerjee shares what has changed

Talking about what has changed after the MeToo movement, he reveals, “I think and I hope less of coffee shop meetings and less of dinner meetings after MeToo. I think that`s one change, probably. When I speak to my female colleagues, I realise that now they’ve understood, they’ve become smarter than the guys would not be that direct.” 

He further adds, “But otherwise it was a very strong practice to have these coffee shop and dinner meetings for casting, which I never understood. I had a very strict rule in my casting company that nobody could go and meet an actor outside the office space. And if you`re meeting them outside office space, you`re not meeting them as a casting director. If I get to know that you`ve met an actor at some coffee shop for casting, you`re fired.” 

Abhishek shared that he had this strict rule in his casting company, Casting Bay, way before the MeToo movement began. 

Abhishek Banerjee says exchanging sexual favours was a common practice

The Paatal Lok actor further adds, “I remember when I used to cast, it was so difficult for people to like accept that we were doing it without sex. Ki hum kaam kar rahe hain, but hum only kaam kar rahe hain. (That we are only working)” 

He adds, “I have had experiences where after casting somebody, people have said, ‘Oh, so now when?’ And I would go, ‘What? You`re a fantastic actor. Like, why can`t you just accept that?” That there`s no prior notion behind casting you. It used to happen a lot.” 

Sharing that such behaviour is very common in casting space, he said, “And lots of flirting and this and that, that`s a very regular situation in a casting office.” “It was like that when I started as an assistant. It was that. I`ve had situations where they`ll be like, ‘Arey, kyu nahi ho raha mera audition, aap batao na.’ (Why is my audition not happening? Just tell me) I would be like, ‘That`s because you`re not acting well yet,” he shares.