I had no idea about gender tests happening in sports”: Abhishek Banerjee

Indian actor and casting director Abhishek Banerjee is best known for his roles in Stree, Rashmi Rocket and in the web series’ Paatal Lok and Mirzapur. Rashmi Rocket, starring actor Taapsee Pannu in lead role, was one of the first film in Bollywood to have spoken up and raised this raging issue of gender test in sports. Actor Abhishek Banerjee received a lot of praise for playing the lawyer in the film. However, even he didn’t know about the entire issue of gender tests till he read the script. ‘Rashmi Rocket’ was released on OTT platform ( Zee5 ), it was a world television premiere on Zee Cinema. Speaking about whether Abhishek knew about this burning topic among sportsperson, he says, “No. Of course, not. Once I read the script and went through the entire thing then I realised how big thing it was. I had to check this with my father, who is a huge sports lover and I always keep on asking him about such kinds of thematic stories. He told me that this is a very relevant and age-old situation for female athletes. He even told me that it’s a very important film, and I should do it.” When I read the script , I realized that they had done their thorough research with respect to the laws. What I need to do was to convince the audience that I am a lawyer. For that, I had to speak to a few of my lawyer friends. I wanted to go to the courts probably and be a part of the hearings, but I couldn’t because of Covid-19. I searched some videos and all on YouTube, but honestly, they were very boring (laughs). So, I chose to not really get into that, and I tried to add my own character to the lawyer which was already written.” I never expected How this turned The script was really amazing , the cast and crew were really supporting and it was fun shooting this movie . What I want to say there are many unsaid things which really need to get in Light for the knowledge of people .