Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Stree 2 star Abhishek Banerjee says he still remembers the day Amitabh Bachchan walked on the set of Section 84, a moment that brought a flashback of all those movies of the megastar that he grew up watching.
"I recorded it because I didn't want to forget it ever," Banerjee told PTI.
"That walk took me to that nostalgic era of him in all those films... (His)dialogues and action scenes flashed in front of my eyes. He is an institution. Everybody wants to work with him," the actor said.
The Ribhu Dasgupta-directed Section 84 was the quickest he had agreed to do a film, said the actor, who had two successful releases in Stree 2 and Vedaa last week.
"They called me and said, 'There is this film with Mr Bachchan and I said, 'Yes'. I didn't hear the next two lines. They were like, 'Arre, first hear what kind of film....I was like, 'No need'. Ribhu Dasgupta has imagined me in a character which is almost like being Bachchan in front of Mr Bachchan. It was a huge deal for me."
Banerjee, who also runs Casting Bay, a casting agency with Anmol Ahuja, admits that he was under a lot of pressure to have Bachchan as his co-star.
"I am someone who likes spontaneity but Mr Bachchan remembers everybody's lines, my lines and four other actors' lines. I had to memorise because I realised, I can't go 'a, a, a' in rehearsals with him. I was very disciplined those days and enjoyed that," he added.
Banerjee, 39, said he next wants to work with his other childhood heroes --Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan.
"I also wanted to work with Irrfan sir but unfortunately he left us. Fortunately, he has left so much of knowledge for us so he will always be very close to actors like me and we will keep learning from him," he added.