
Abhishek Banerjee Knew Siddhant Chaturvedi Had A Spark Even Before Gully Boy
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Abhishek Banerjee noted that Siddhant Chaturvedi embodies a new generation of Bollywood actors who blend style with depth and aren't afraid to take bold creative risks.
Abhishek Banerjee, known for his compelling performances and experience as a casting director, recently shared his thoughts on rising talent in the entertainment industry. Speaking fondly of Siddhant Chaturvedi, Banerjee described him as a standout performer, someone he considers a rare find with the potential to leave a lasting mark in the industry.
In conversation with Raj Shamani, Abhishek Banerjee said, 'Siddhant Chaturvedi is my rarest find. I'll take his name because he has given very important performances. We cast him in Inside Edge as the character of a Dalit bowler — and that choice is deliberate and important to highlight."
Expressing his admiration further for Chaturvedi, Banerjee said, 'The first time I saw him, I knew there is something remarkable about this man. Siddhant who is a hero today, and imagined in all different stylish, glamorous roles — we had envisioned him as a lower-caste sportsman, someone who was oppressed and bullied."
Banerjee added that Siddhant Chaturvedi represents a refreshing new wave in Bollywood — performers who blend style with substance and aren't afraid to push creative boundaries. He recalled first casting Chaturvedi in a Coca-Cola commercial, followed by a role in Inside Edge, before the actor went on to earn widespread acclaim for his breakout performance in Gully Boy.
This endorsement only fuels the excitement surrounding Chaturvedi, whose upcoming projects are already generating buzz. He is set to star in Dhadak 2 opposite Triptii Dimri, and will also appear alongside Jaya Bachchan and Wamiqa Gabbi in the comedy Dil Ka Darwaaza Khol Na Darling.
Meanwhile, Abhishek Banerjee continues to make his own mark in cinema, best known for his role in the Stree franchise. His recent film Stolen has earned global attention, breaking into the top 10 trending films on Prime Video in both India and the United States.
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News18
4 hours ago
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How Siddhant Chaturvedi Made His Father's ‘Unfinished Dream' A Reality
Last Updated: Siddhant Chaturvedi also shared how his father supported him through countless auditions and rejections early in his acting journey. On a day dedicated to fathers, many Bollywood celebrities took a nostalgic journey through their childhoods, sharing heartfelt memories and tributes on social media. Among them was Siddhant Chaturvedi, who penned a touching note for his father on June 15. The actor shared a series of pictures on Instagram, including an adorable throwback photo from his childhood that shows just how cute he's always been. He also included a recent picture of himself and his dad, smiling and enjoying a quiet moment together over a cup of coffee. Sharing the photos, he penned, 'The most beautiful thing in the world is watching your parents grow old in front of you… But somehow, you never age for them, you're always a kid." He then shared his father's love for cinema, writing, 'My father invested in my dream—an unfinished dream of his. From Ballia to this city of rising skyscrapers and failing dreams, he held on to me. Every movie he ever watched—stealing from his own school fee (Rs 1), sometimes through a peephole in a worn-out cinema hall in Ballia… Taking turns with friends queued up, finishing a film over 10 days… All that love for cinema, stored in a Gullak of dreams. All for me." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Siddhant Chaturvedi (@siddhantchaturvedi) The actor also revealed how his father stood beside him while he was diving deep into the world of auditions and rejections. He wrote, 'He made sure I completed my education (& even more CA)—a contingency plan for if the Bollywood dreams break. Securing me first… and then letting me cut the harness, fearlessly diving deep into the world of auditions and rejections. I couldn't have done it alone." 'Every movie I do is for that little kid—my dad—watching from a peephole outside a cinema hall. And I still have to do more. Much more. Love you, Papa. P.S. — It's awkward to say all of this to you in person. You know how father-son dynamics are… We don't say 'I love you" easily. It's awkward. But here it is," he concluded. On the work front, Siddhant Chaturvedi is set to appear next in the romantic comedy Dil Ka Darwaaza Khol Na Darling, alongside Wamiqa Gabbi and Jaya Bachchan. Additionally, he is reportedly reuniting with his Phone Bhoot co-star Ishaan Khatter and actress Pooja Hegde for an upcoming project. First Published:


News18
5 hours ago
- News18
Abhishek Banerjee Knew Siddhant Chaturvedi Had A Spark Even Before Gully Boy
Last Updated: Abhishek Banerjee noted that Siddhant Chaturvedi embodies a new generation of Bollywood actors who blend style with depth and aren't afraid to take bold creative risks. Abhishek Banerjee, known for his compelling performances and experience as a casting director, recently shared his thoughts on rising talent in the entertainment industry. Speaking fondly of Siddhant Chaturvedi, Banerjee described him as a standout performer, someone he considers a rare find with the potential to leave a lasting mark in the industry. In conversation with Raj Shamani, Abhishek Banerjee said, 'Siddhant Chaturvedi is my rarest find. I'll take his name because he has given very important performances. We cast him in Inside Edge as the character of a Dalit bowler — and that choice is deliberate and important to highlight." Expressing his admiration further for Chaturvedi, Banerjee said, 'The first time I saw him, I knew there is something remarkable about this man. Siddhant who is a hero today, and imagined in all different stylish, glamorous roles — we had envisioned him as a lower-caste sportsman, someone who was oppressed and bullied." Banerjee added that Siddhant Chaturvedi represents a refreshing new wave in Bollywood — performers who blend style with substance and aren't afraid to push creative boundaries. He recalled first casting Chaturvedi in a Coca-Cola commercial, followed by a role in Inside Edge, before the actor went on to earn widespread acclaim for his breakout performance in Gully Boy. This endorsement only fuels the excitement surrounding Chaturvedi, whose upcoming projects are already generating buzz. He is set to star in Dhadak 2 opposite Triptii Dimri, and will also appear alongside Jaya Bachchan and Wamiqa Gabbi in the comedy Dil Ka Darwaaza Khol Na Darling. Meanwhile, Abhishek Banerjee continues to make his own mark in cinema, best known for his role in the Stree franchise. His recent film Stolen has earned global attention, breaking into the top 10 trending films on Prime Video in both India and the United States. First Published:


Hindustan Times
8 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Word on the street: A delightful collection of poems celebrates Indian cities across 2,000 years
It began with a bout of homesickness. While studying for a degree in economics at Yale in late-2020, Bilal Moin began to feel a yearning for Mumbai. He sought refuge in poems about the city, initially turning to classics by Arun Kolatkar, Adil Jussawalla and Dom Moraes. After a while, he cast his net wider. Entering keywords into the university library archive, he discovered poets he had never heard of, their verses on Bombay preserved in journals and magazines long-since defunct. In 2023, he mentioned his 'Word document of homesick scribbles' to Shawkat Toorawa, a professor of comparative literature at Yale. 'He pointed out that, pretty much by accident, I had put together an anthology,' says Moin, speaking from Oxford, where he is now pursuing a Master's degree. Last month, that collection was released as a 1,072-page hardcover anthology: The Penguin Book of Poems on the Indian City. It holds 375 poems by 264 poets, translated from 20 languages. Readers can explore the very different Mumbais of the Jewish playwright and art critic Nissim Ezekiel and the Dalit activist Namdeo Dhasal. They can lament the loss of Shahjahanabad with the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar. Revisit the colonial-era Delhi of Sarojini Naidu, the Haridwar of Manjul Bajaj, or discover a tiny microcosm of India in Thangjam Ibopishak's Imphal. 'My hope is that as you travel through these poems,' writes Moin in the introduction, 'you will discover that within the magic, malice and masala of urban India, every city-dweller becomes, in their own way, a poet.' Centuries of verse 'on a scrap of dried out / soil under a dried up tree / a deer stands in the very centre of New Delhi…' the Polish poet Katarzyna Zechenter writes, in A Nilgai Deer in the City of Delhi. As his homesick search took him all over, picking what to include in the book, and deciding where to stop, was a huge challenge, Moin says. 'Penguin,' he adds, laughing, 'neglected to give me an upper limit for the number of poems I could include, and I took advantage of that and trawled as far and wide — geographically, linguistically and temporally — as possible.' The oldest poem in the collection is Pataliputra, an ode to that ancient Mauryan capital (and ancestor to modern-day Patna), written by Tamil Sangam poet Mosi Keeranar, sometime between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE. 'May all of Pataliputra, swimming in gold, / where white-tusked elephants splash about / in the Sona River, be yours…' he writes. One of the most recent is Imphal as a Pond, by the 22-year-old queer activist Mesak Takhelmayum: 'My family is like the archipelago at Loktak, / if not the chains of islands in the great ocean far beyond these mountains, / in our separation, we yearn for one another / we yearn for water to connect us.' Jungle of people... Once he had a longlist ready, Moin spent weeks sending out hundreds of emails to poets and publishers, trying to work out how to get permission to feature each piece. 'I've featured writers who maybe had one or two poems published 15 years ago, and then seemingly never published again,' he says. 'So I had to send a lot of Facebook messages to people with similar names, saying 'Hi you don't know me, but are you this poet?'' He was determined that each poem be presented at its best, so he dug through multiple translations, and consulted with linguists, scholars or simply friends and acquaintances, to identify the best or most accurate recreations in English. There was a lot of debate over which translation of Tagore's two poems, Song of the City and The Flute, to choose. For the former, he chose the translation by William Radice: 'O city, city, jungle of people, / Road after road, buildings innumerable, / Everything buyable, everything saleable, / Uproar, hubbub, noise.' In loving memory As he read his way through centuries of verse, Moin says, he noticed something that thrilled him: over and over, certain cities inspired the same sentiment. Whether this was an effect of culture, literary mirroring or an idea that took root and spread, tracing these threads through time felt extraordinary, he says. Kolkata's poets tend to look at the city as a harsh mistress, their unrequited love for her both romantic and torturous. Mumbai poets struggle to come to terms with their city's glaring inequalities, and write of the difficulties of surviving in this maximal metropolis. As for Delhi, 'it doesn't matter if you're reading poetry from the 14th century or the 21st,' Moin says. 'The theme is always that this was once a great city, but it no longer is. And that one loves Delhi for its past.' 'A lot of fantastic gay poets, such as Hoshang Merchant and R Raj Rao, are featured in this collection,' Moin adds. 'It's interesting to see, through their eyes, how the city enables the marginalised to express themselves, while on the other hand still stifling them.' There are poets in these pages who are also activists and fighters, soldiers and sages, memory-keepers looking to record a city's present, its culture and its people, its quirks and flaws, before it is all erased and redrawn. But most poets in the anthology, Moin points out, are none of these things. They are simply the 'loafers' of Arvind Krishna Mehrotra's imagination, drifting carefree through gardens, temples and lanes, finding ways to turn the minutiae of the everyday into art. As Nirupama Dutt puts it, in Laughing Sorrow: 'I will go to the poet of the city, / looking for life without restraint. / He will have half a bottle of rum / in one pocket and a freshly / written poem in the other.' Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.