Stree 2 actor and casting director Abhishek Banerjee says he has 'created a system where women feel safe'

Abhishek Banerjee

Abhishek Banerjee is currently enjoying the success of Stree 2. Besides acting, he's been working as a casting director for 15 years and co-owns a casting agency in Mumbai called Casting Bay.

Stree 2 actor Abhishek Banerjee on workplace harassment

In an interview with NDTV, Abhishek shared that his company has strict rules to create a safe workplace for women. He mentioned that meetings outside the office are not allowed, and no one is allowed to text female colleagues after a certain time. He also admitted to firing employees who broke this rule.

Abhishek Banerjee stated, "The first thing we did was that we decided on a rule that we will not do any meetings or none of our employees are allowed to do any meetings outside our office. Because the problem which was really deep-seated was that there was a lot of coffee shop-meeting culture in Bombay. ‘Let's meet at this coffee shop, meet at this restaurant'. We wanted to say ‘No, that's not professional. We are not going to work in a coffee shop. You are not meeting to eat food or have coffee. You are meeting for work. So let's keep it professional. You come to our office, whoever wants to meet, we will give you time. You come, speak to us, and then you go'."

Explaining more about the strict rule on messaging women, Abhishek Banerjee added, "None of our employees are allowed to message female actors after a certain point. If you do that, strict actions will be taken which we have. We have fired employees who have messaged actresses at a certain hour which was probably objectionable. We created a system where women would feel safe."

Wondering why Shraddha Kapoor's presence in Stree 2 was limited?

In a recent interview with Bollywood Hungama, Amar Kaushik shared that he received feedback regarding Shraddha Kapoor's limited screen time in Stree 2. He mentioned: "Some people even complained that Shraddha Kapoor's screen time is less. Lekin agar Shraddha zyada dikhti, toh jis tarah ki entry ki usne, uska impact nahin hota (But if Shraddha had been more visible, the kind of entry she made would not have had an impact)."

Discussing the screen time of other actors like Aparshakti Khurana, Kaushik highlighted that the focus is always on the needs of the script. He commented, "We write what is required," and shared that they didn't think along the lines of an actor feeling bad about the duration of his or her role.