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Things have changed after Stree for Abhishek Banerjee. His years of struggle in feature films started with a chilling role as a child rapist in Devashish Makhija’s Ajji. The experience left the actor scarred for life. Zoom spoke with Abhishek about the film.
You played a reprehensible child rapist in Ajji?
Ajji, I think, is one of the most special and one of the most haunting memories in my short span of acting career. Matlab, Ajji is that one film where I was very excited that one director had faith in me, Devashish Makhija, to give me a feature film, a feature-length film. Usse pehle I had only done short films, which also was actually made by Dev. So Dev, in a way, was my first mentor, director, and my journey as an actor started with him.
What a tough beginning!
I think right from the workshops, I realised that it was not an easy job. Dekh ke bada aasaan lag raha tha, but actually, it was quite a task. Me and my friend Manoj Sharma, who plays Umiya in the film, we are still best friends, no matter how creepy that might sound, but we are still best friends, and those days when we used to read, when we used to rehearse, honestly, because we had not faced camera. There was no other option but to completely immerse ourselves into the role, like completely dive without any safety.
Explain?
It was very difficult because my character Dhavle, the way he saw the world, the way he was power hungry, and of course, the gruesome act, which he does in the film, which he commits in the film. And to just understand such human behavior, it was quite an uphill task for someone like me.
It was really rough on you?
I had a lot of issues, I had anger issues those days, I was palpitating all the time, I was anxious all the time, my wife hated me, my neighbors hated me, and I actually had picked up fights, even with my neighbors, it was that bad. Yeah, I mean, I remember before shooting the film, I went to Goa, just to relax my mind. And I like to do it. I like doing that. I still do it. Like before the start of any film, I like to leave Bombay and go somewhere else and then come back.
So you went to Goa to unburden for this gruesome part?
I went to Goa, I partied there, I came back and I just couldn't make myself go and shoot the film.
What?!
Yeah, I called my director and told him that I'm very sick, I can't come for the shoot. And Devashish freaked out because this was not one of those commercial films where he had a lot of money or scope to probably push the film even by a day or two. He had to shoot on his first day and he did not know what to do. He was constantly calling me and he constantly spoke to me and he told me that, you know, this is the situation. And I told him that, listen, I'm puking all the time. And he was like, bro, I'm pissing blood. He was actually going through a worse situation that time. So both the director and the actor of the film were suffering very badly. And then finally the first day happened. I was on my medicines, I was coughing, I was drinking my syrup. And we did that scene where the cop comes and interrogates me, which in return becomes his interrogation.
What a scary sequence!
But after that, I think I gained some confidence and we finished the entire film without any roadblock. But yeah, now that you asked me it doesn’t feel like seven years back, but it still feels like yesterday. That's how strong the memories of Ajji are.