Abhishek Banerjee Wins at IIFA for Stolen, Completing an Awards Hat-Trick
There is a category of actor the industry has never quite had a word for. Not a star, not a character actor, not a "supporting" presence. The closest English gets is journeyman, and it is too modest. Abhishek Banerjee is making the case that the category needs a better name.
The win
At the IIFA Digital Awards 2026, Banerjee won Best Actor (Male) in the digital film category for Stolen, Karan Tejpal's taut thriller, which also won Tejpal Best Director. Banerjee shared a second trophy too, Best Original Story for Paatal Lok Season 2, which he co-wrote.
That makes three major acting awards for the same performance:
Filmfare OTT Awards: Best Actor (Male), Web Original Movie
Chetak Screen Awards: Best Actor (Male), OTT Film
IIFA Digital Awards: Best Actor (Male), digital film
Why Stolen stuck
Stolen gave Banerjee something his best-known roles rarely did: the centre of the frame. Audiences know him as Jana from Stree, the friend whose loyalty is half the joke, and as Compounder from Mirzapur, the enforcer whose quiet does the menacing. Stolen asked him to carry a film morally as well as dramatically. The awards suggest juries noticed.
The rest of the year
The work has not slowed. Banerjee returned as Compounder in Mirzapur: The Film and appeared in Netflix's Lust Stories 3. He has also stepped back from casting, the work that first brought him into the industry, to concentrate on acting.
What is next
Legacy: his Tamil debut, a Netflix series led by R. Madhavan, in which Banerjee and Gulshan Devaiah square off against Madhavan's gangster
An untitled action film with Tiger Shroff: Banerjee is reported to play the lead antagonist, a Haryanvi gangster
We mapped his roles in more detail in our guide to Abhishek Banerjee's films and upcoming projects.
The larger point
For years, OTT was described as the place where actors like Banerjee got their chance. The awards now suggest something more interesting: that OTT is where the industry's definition of a lead is being rewritten. Banerjee is one of the people doing the rewriting.
Frequently asked questions
What award did Abhishek Banerjee win at IIFA?
Best Actor (Male) in the digital film category at the IIFA Digital Awards 2026, for Stolen.
What other awards has he won for Stolen?
Best Actor (Male) in a Web Original Movie at the Filmfare OTT Awards, and Best Actor (Male) in an OTT film at the Chetak Screen Awards.
Did Abhishek Banerjee win anything else at IIFA?
He shared Best Original Story for Paatal Lok Season 2, which he co-wrote.
What is Abhishek Banerjee's Tamil debut?
Legacy, a Netflix Tamil series led by R. Madhavan.
Kenneth Hopkins is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AltBollywood. Indofuturist, posthumanist and unapologetically Indocentric, he describes himself as an epimemeticist, a swaraji, a freakonomist, a lexicographer and a cartochronicler, mapping the ideas, words and quiet shifts that shape Indian entertainment. Follow him on Instagram at @kennethhopkins.
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