Abhishek Banerjee on Stree 2 credit row: We love hero worship in this country

Both the audience and industry need to understand that cinema is a director's medium and the credit of a film's success must be attributed to the director alone, says actor Abhishek Banerjee, whose latest release Stree 2 was embroiled in a "credit war".

After Stree 2 released on August 15, there was a lot of buzz online with fans of both its lead stars Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao fighting over who the film belonged to more.

The film, a sequel to 2018's Stree, is directed by Amar Kaushik and written by Niren Bhatt. Produced by Dinesh Vijan of Maddock Films, Stree 2 has grossed over Rs 600 crore in Indian theatres.

Abhishek, an important part of the film's ensemble cast, said it is the director who makes or breaks a film.

"There's enough camaraderie between all of us (cast)... It's easy for us to associate credit with actors, but we have to grow up as an audience and industry. That cinema is a director's medium, that's it. There's no debate. If something is working or not, it's because of the director,” the actor told PTI.

"That's how simple the credit game is. We complicate it because we love hero worship in this country. Director is the captain. Staff members and the crew will tell you, it's Amar, Niren Bhatt, and Dinesh Vijan. You have to see them first, then it trickles down to us," he added.

Abhishek, also a casting director, said that even Amar has clarified that there is no "war" among the cast members.

"The 'war' gets created. When two people's PRs will work and if people will call it war, I don't understand that... We all really love and respect each other. What happened I think is that suddenly after the film's success, you want to associate it with some negativity,” he said.

"I have been saying there is no need to do this. Nobody else is feeling that. We are having fun, enjoying ourselves. Shraddha is doing well, Raj celebrated his birthday, Apar is chilling with his family, I'm chilling with my friends, but the world is saying there's some kind of war. Everybody is living in peace, where is the war?" he added.

The actor will next be seen in Ribhu Dasgupta's courtroom drama Section 84.