Abhishek Banerjee reacts to ‘Stree 2’ credit row
New Delhi: Both the audience and industry need to understand that cinema is a director’s medium and the credit for a film’s success must be attributed to the director alone, said Abhishek Banerjee, whose latest release ‘Stree 2’ was embroiled in a ‘credit war’.
After ‘Stree 2’ was released on August 15, there was a lot of buzz online with fans of both its lead stars Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao fighting over who the film belonged to more. The movie, a sequel to 2018’s ‘Stree’, is directed by Amar Kaushik and written by Niren Bhatt. Produced by Dinesh Vijan of ‘Maddock Films’, ‘Stree 2’ has grossed over Rs 600 crore in Indian theatres.
Banerjee, an important part of the film’s ensemble cast, said that it is the director who makes or breaks the film. “There’s enough camaraderie between all of us (cast). It’s easy for us to associate credit with actors, but we have to grow up as an audience and industry. That cinema is a director’s medium, that’s it. There’s no debate. If something is working or not, it’s because of the director. That’s how simple the credit game is. We complicate it because we love hero worship in this country. The director is the captain. Staff members and the crew will tell you, ‘It’s Amar, Niren Bhatt and Dinesh Vijan’. You have to see them first, then it trickles down to us,” the actor told the top news agency.
Banerjee, also a casting director, said that even Kaushik has clarified that there is no ‘war’ among the cast members. “The ‘war’ gets created. When two people’s PRs work and if people will call it war, I don’t understand that. We all really love and respect each other. What happened I think is that suddenly after the film’s success, you want to associate it with some negativity. I have been saying there is no need to do this. Nobody else is feeling that. We are having fun, enjoying ourselves. Shraddha is doing well, Raj celebrated his birthday, Apar is chilling with his family and I’m chilling with my friends, but the world is saying there’s some kind of war.”
