He had a busy year with multiple releases on OTT platforms, and there seems to be no stopping Abhishek Banerjee. The actor, who started his career with a short appearance in Rang De Basanti (2006), has shown his versatility with many challenging and entertaining roles. Adding another feather to his cap, his short film, Paash, recently secured a spot in the top five films from India in Shorts TV Film Festival, which is an Oscar-qualifying film festival.

Sharing his excitement, the actor says, “This is too special for me, and this year has been fantastic and thrilling, work-wise. One doesn’t expect anything while doing a short film and does it for the love of it. As an actor, you want a wide variety of audience watching your work. It gives you more opportunity to explore yourself and become less dependent on a particular kind of work.”

Banerjee, 32, however, admits that while having your work recognised globally definitely grabs you some eyeballs, whether it translates to better opportunities or not is questionable. “Unfortunately, the international acclaim is overshadowed by box-office numbers here, but it’s important to realise that everything is not about money, and definitely not art!” he says.

With rise in digital content, there has been a boom in shorts as well. The Paatal Lok actor credits short films for his career launch. “Ajji (2017) happened when director Devashish Makhija saw me in a short, and later, Ajji helped me get Stree (2018). Moreover, due to the rise of OTT platforms now, there’s an audience waiting to see interesting shorts. We even have an award-function category for short films. If you are talented, shorts are a great opportunity to prove yourself,” he concludes.