Abhishek Banerjee Clears The Air Over His Dismissal In Agneepath By Dharma Productions: “Never Mentioned Karan Johar”

Abhishek Banerjee is basking in the success of Vedaa and Stree 2. Both the films hit the big screens on August 15. While the actor is receiving praise for his powerful performances, he has also stirred controversy with a recent statement that hinted at his dismissal from Agneepath. According to reports, he was allegedly dropped by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions. Now, the actor has issued a clarification on Instagram, revealing that he was referring to Agneepath director Karan Malhotra, not Karan Johar.

Abhishek Banerjee, in his elaborate note on Instagram Stories, said, “This week I have been blessed, with two releases and one controversy I’ve been reading and hearing a lot of reports about Dharma Productions supposedly firing my company, Casting Bay, during the casting process of Agneepath (2012). Unfortunately, this situation has been completely misrepresented as accusatory on our part. In a podcast/interview, I had stated the reason for our dismissal, acknowledging that we were unable to align with the vision of director Karan Malhotra for Agneepath.” 

Abhishek Banerjee expressed that he was “quite young at the time, around 20 to 23 years old, with little to no experience in casting for a major commercial film.” As per the actor, this “perhaps led to us misinterpreting Mr. Malhotra’s requirements for the project.”

Clarifying that it was not KJo, but Karan Malhotra’s team that dismissed him, Abhishek Banerjee added, “I have not accused or suggested any wrongdoing on the part of Dharma Productions. In fact, I have deep respect for Dharma Productions and Karan Johar. I never mentioned Karan Johar in relation to our dismissal, yet some reports falsely claim that he was the one who fired us. The decision was actually made by Mr. Malhotra’s team, and I accepted our mistakes.” 

Abhishek Banerjee also mentioned that Karan Johar’s production house has been “very good” to him. He said, “I shared this story to encourage young people that even if you fail or hit a roadblock, you can always bounce back, as we did. We went on to work on several projects with Dharma, starting with Ok Jaanu, Student of the Year 2, Kalank and recent releases like – Kill and Gyarah Gyarah. Additionally, Dharma even cast me as an actor in Ajeeb Daastaans. Dharma has always been very good to me and to my company, Casting Bay. It is a relationship we value and nurture.”

The actor ended the note with a humorous touch, “PS: I am not putting this out for the hamper.” Hope you get the Koffee With Karan reference.

In case you missed it, here is what Abhishek Banerjee said during an interview with Siddharth Kannan –  “Agneepath se humein nikaal diya tha. Agneepath ki casting hum log kar rahe the baad mein Jogi bhai aaye. Kyu nikal di kyuki woh casting unko pasand nahi aayi, Karan sir ko pasand nahi aayi. Hum log kuch zyada hi Anurag Kashyap-waale actors la rahe the jo unhe pasand nahi aya. Toh unhone bola, ‘Nikal jao humari film se!’ Hume laga career barbaad, khatam! Dharma se nikal gaye ab ho gaya! But thankfully bach gaye. [We were fired from Agneepath. We were casting for Agneepath, it was then taken over by Jogi (Mallang) bhai. Why were we removed? Because Karan sir didn’t like our casting. We were casting Anurag Kashyap-type actors. He didn’t like it and said, get out of our film. We thought our career was over because we were thrown out of Dharma Productions. But thankfully, we survived].”