'Shotgun' takes a shot at Bollywood!

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Posted: 18 years ago
'Shotgun' takes a shot at Bollywood!


He is completely bald. That's the first thing that you notice about Raj Banerjee, aka 'Shotgun' in Star One's Special Squad.


Raj Banerjee: Bollywood calling!

But as he greets you, you cannot but be taken in by his natural charm and affable nature. Raj is all set to make his Bollywood debut (mainstream cinema) with Mirch Masala (working title), which will be released early next year.

Raj, who plays a Bihari art graduate in the Aroop Aikari directed thriller, has a couple of shows in his kitty as well. He will soon be seen on SaharaOne as a student opposition leader in a campus show, tentatively titled, Saat Rahenge Always that will be on air by the first week of December.

So has he ever been a student's union leader, we ask, (being from Kolkata) -- "No, I always wanted to play safe. I worked in the day and attended college in the evenings, I had no time for politics. Perhaps I never had the motivation as well," says Raj, who continued his studies and got a diploma in journalism and International trade from Symbiosis, Pune.

"It's a negative character. I took this on because I always felt that this kind of characters have a wider range as far as performance is concerned. I want to do 15 days of television and the rest films, what I am looking at now is good work, I don't care about viewership!" says Raj, who has quite a checkered past.

Our sources tell us that the actor was also offered a role in Star One's India Calling, but he did'nt take it up.

Interestingly, Raj has worked with Tata for seven years (starting at the age of 18), before embarking on his acting career.


Raj on the sets of Special Squad!

Perhaps, it is here that the track gets a little filmi --- At the age of 25, he took voluntary retirement. " I am a pensioner," he laughs! "I will be eligible till I am 60 and that's a long time coming!" he adds.

You bet! It takes a lot of guts to leave a comfortable job on an impulse, leave grumbling parents at home...and embark on a journey to realise your dreams...Raj did all that and finally he seems to have got his due!
Cheers to that!




Did you know????

    His first television show was for Zee Bangla a campus show called Ekushe

    Pa
    (When you are 21) in 1994

    He realised he could be an actor when he saw the rushes of his film on Tagore.

    Did a 102 episode show called Nyay on DD

    Has done films for BBC, Channel 4 and Hallmark

    Did a Cadbury advertisement that made him so popular that the exective producer of Special Squad offered him a role in the show

  • Can sing and does riyaaz every day, will hum a few lines in his forthcoming film

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Lovely-Maiden thumbnail
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Posted: 18 years ago

Nice Article...

Good job... 😊
luving_gal_neha thumbnail
Posted: 18 years ago
O wow!!!!!!!!Am sooo happy! 😃 😊