Actor Priya Banerjee, who relocated from Canada to start her acting career with a Telugu film, says that not once in the seven years that she has been in the country, has she felt out of place or left out.
My very first film Kiss with Sesh Adivi took me to Tollywood. I got to be a part of this amazing work environment with a streamlined work schedule. Initially, the language seemed really difficult but the team helped me learn and understand Telugu. I never felt that I don’t belong here,” says the youngster seen in projects like Hello Mini, Twisted-3, Baarish and more.
“For that matter even in Mumbai, I get to meet so many people who aren’t from here but they work here and it’s their home now. Also, the entertainment industry itself is very accommodating and supportive,” she adds.
While Banerjee’s initial stint was mainly down South, finally her Bollywood break happened with Jazbaa with biggies like Shabana Azmi, Aishwarya Rai and the late Irrfan Khan. She says, “When I got to know Shabana Ma’am (Azmi) will be playing my mother, it was kind of intimidating at first. It’s unbelievable my first scene in Bollywood was with the exceptionally talented actor. All of them were so encouraging and then once the rehearsals were done, I didn’t feel nervous even a bit. Although she’s so experienced still she was so down-to-earth.”
Banerjee has been part of multiple web projects even before OTT became the booming medium that we know it as.
“With films, I desperately needed to take up content that was out of the box and that’s when OTT came to my rescue. Good roles with great stories came to me and I was gladly following my instinct. And see how this medium has turned our lives. I feel blessed to have taken those offers. Today, I am part of a few amazing multi-starrer web series with big OTT platforms and playing extraordinary characters that will surely be liked by my fans,” says the Hume Tumse Pyaar Kitna and Dil Jo Na Keh Saka actor, just waiting for international flights resume so that she can visit her family in Canada.
