A NEW Mould

Nepotism and the Indian entertainment industry have been synonymous for a long time. But that’s slowly changing with a new breed of casting agencies discovering fresh talent. Ankur Pathak investigates

- Ankur Pathak

The dusty road leading to Casting Bay’s offices at Yari Road in Andheri is dotted with watering holes and coffee shops, acting classes and dialect coaching centres, yoga studios and yogurt hubs. There is a temple enroute too, as if to suggest that the journey ahead will be long, and it would help to have the deities on your side.

Founded by actor Abhishek Banerjee (Stree, Paatal Lok) and Anmol Ahuja, both in their mid-30s and from Delhi, Casting Bay is a four-year-old casting company that’s become an important port of call in India’s burgeoning entertainment industry, having cast for several acclaimed projects from Paatal Lok, Panchayat, Mirzapur to Inside Edge, The Sky Is Pink and Secret Superstar, shining a spotlight on talents such as Jaideep Ahlawat, Siddhant Chaturvedi (first cast as a cricketer in Inside Edge), Maanvi Gagroo, Avinash Tiwary, Nimrat Kaur and Rohit Saraf. At the tottering iron gate, I’m told that there aren’t any walk-in auditions. I quip that I could be the next Nawazuddin Siddiqui only if given a chance.

“Please check our social media for casting calls,” a man named Deepak tells me gently, and I realise that the 1990s exist mostly in my head. New-age casting companies such as Casting Bay, Anti-Casting and Kabiku Productions, among others, welcome aspirants and direct them to legitimate ways of getting in.