Jul 07, 2026 7:00pm IST
Abhishek Banerjee reveals Imtiaz Ali’s advice for ‘Side Heroes’: ‘Don’t Try To Become a Hero’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Casting director turned actor Abhishek Banerjee has several interesting projects lined up for 2026, from his return as Compounder in “Mirzapur The Movie” to a Vikramaditya Motwane-directed short in Netflix’s anthology, “Lust Stories 3”, opposite Konkona Sen Sharma. But there’s one more upcoming project of his that deserves attention, especially because Imtiaz Ali is attached as a producer and mentor to the film: “Side Heroes.”
Coinciding with Friendship Day last year in August, the “Main Vapas Aunga” filmmaker announced “Side Heroes” with a hilarious video in which he proposed the idea of a film about side heroes to Banerjee, Aparshakti Khurana, and Varun Sharma. Now, in an exclusive chat with Variety India, Banerjee reveals his first impression of the film.
“I think the first time I got to know that Aparshakti Khurana and Varun Sharma [were in the film], I said, ‘Okay, that's interesting’. They actually had a different title for this film because they thought we might feel bad about the title ‘Side Hero’.”
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Being called a “side actor” would probably not go down well with most actors, but it is an industry slang term that has become quite commonplace. And Banerjee called out the media for normalising it through repeated use, while also promising that the film’s title might actually surprise the audience when they watch it.
“This is a journalism issue. You guys should never write ‘side actor’. What is this ‘side actor’? You can use any other word but ‘side’. Just because he's standing on the side! But we thought that it's going to be good fun. People are going to come thinking about a particular genre, but maybe they'll find a different genre when they watch ‘Side Heroes’.”
The “Stree” actor even shared a tip that Imtiaz Ali shared with him about doing the film. “Imtiaz Ali sir is one of the mentors, and I am really excited about working with him,” Banerjee reveals. “In fact, Sir met me at a screening, and he gave me a tip for ‘Side Heroes’. He said, ‘Don’t try to become a hero’. And I thought, ‘Of course, that's the irony! In ‘Side Heroes’, nobody is a hero. We all are Side Heroes’.”
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In fact, Banerjee’s advice as a casting director to aspiring actors is pretty much the same. “Don’t try to heroes,” he reiterates. “It's embarrassing sometimes when I see some actors trying to be heroes, trying to do the song-dance routine when it doesn’t suit them. Why would you do that? For money? Well, try and figure out something else for money.”
He continues with his call for change. “We actors, especially those who come from outside, when we come into the industry, we all talk about cinema, art, craft and how we want to change things and all of that. And the minute we get a little fame, we are doing some random stuff and we are making a fool out of ourselves. Why are you doing that when you are trained in stage? You know about characterization, tonality and voice. You know everything. You know these skills, which, mind you, 90% of the actors do not know. So why aren't you using that training? Why are you trying to do something that other people are better at? You can't. You just can't beat them at their own game. So try to build your own game. This is a call for revolution,” he concludes.
Written by Siddharth Sen and Pankaj Matta, “Side Heroes” is directed by Ssanjay Tripaathy and produced by Imtiaz Ali, Mahaveer Jain, Reeyan M. Shah and Mrighdeep Singh Lamba. The film was slated for an August 2026 release, but no release date has been announced yet.
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