Abhishek Banerjee cautions Bollywood over trend of casting influencers based on Instagram followers: 'No one will...'

Abhishek Banerjee is currently garnering praise for his acting chops in Stree 2. The actor, who also runs a casting agency, talked about the trend of casting influencers over actors in films and called it 'rubbish'. 

In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Abhishek Banerjee shared his concerns over the trend of casting influencers in films over actors based on their following and cautioned the industry to stop this habit before it is too late. He said, "This is a reality I face as both a casting director and an actor," Abhishek said. "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."

He further added, "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 comes to realise that this is wrong, it will be too late." 

He added that while influencers may attract initial attention, their popularity alone is not enough to sustain a successful acting career, "One thumbnail will last how long? It might attract viewers to the first episode, but no one will invest nine hours into a web show solely because someone has followers." 

As casting director, he emphasized on casting the actors based on their merit and said, "Shah Rukh Khan has about 45 million followers and there are many who have more, but is there isn’t a bigger star than him? So these comparisons based on followers are rubbish.” Apart from Stree 2, Abhishek Banerjee is also winning praise for his role as an antagonist in Vedaa. Though the film received mixed to negative reviews, his performance was loved by the audience.

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