Actor Ali Fazal, who first drew attention towards him with his cameo in the film 3 Idiots is currently in the frontline of Hollywood projects with the likes of Gal Gadot and Kenneth Branagh. His latest release Death on the Nile hit the theatres on February 11 and the actor is ready to showcase his talents in his next Hollywood offering, Kandahar. Not only that, back in his country, he is working on two of his most anticipated releases – Fukrey 3 and Mirzapur 3. Amid the actor’s busy schedule, we caught up with him and asked him to share his Hollywood experience with us.
Ali told us sincerely that his focus, right now, is on telling good stories. Excerpts from the interview:
How has your experience of working with so many famous names from Hollywood been?
It’s been a really good experience and a fruitful year. Death on the Nile is there and I recently wrapped up Kandahar, with Gerard Butler. That’s an out and out action film. I’m very excited to explore different genres and I find myself lucky to have had the chance of exploring. There’s a long way to go but let’s take one thing at a time.
Before you started shooting for Death on the Nile, did you have any preconceived notions about your co-stars?
Nahi, opposition party nahi hai (laughs). We are all artists who are creating something together. I become extremely excited thinking about what my co-star would bring to the table. I love when there are great performers around me as they make my work easy and make me look good. This time we had a diverse cast of 10 people. And Kenneth Branagh directing this film has been my biggest takeaway. I have learnt a lot from him that I cannot express through words but someday I hope to express through my work.
Out of all your co-stars, with whom did you have the best working bond?
Again, Kenneth was one of my favourites. Besides being my director, he was my co-actor as well and most of my scenes were with him. With Gal (Gadot) also it was really nice and I think Annette Bening and I spoke a lot. Actually, we all were together most of the time so it was not about our individual interactions. However, I think my relationship with Kenneth is something I cherish far more if I were to compare.
Do you think that Indian actors or Asian actors have to fight harder than others in order to get a prominent part in international or Hollywood projects?
Well, I think we all have to fight hard to survive anywhere, especially for industries situated outside our country. It does become harder in all other ways because you cannot be present there physically. I had to be very careful with where I was putting my energies. And I think I’m glad that I have reached a point where I’m doing and sort of dabbling with leading parts in Hollywood movies. There are new doors that have opened up. And that’s something that I’m very happy about because a lot of artists will be able to move in that direction.
Before Victoria and Abdul, I was always told that Asians just get to do character parts, we’ve never done leading parts before. I think it will keep getting better and easier as the world is getting smaller and stories are getting more global. Also, it is not necessary that you have to be a part of an English film to get awards recognition.
Initially, was it a big struggle for you to get accepted there?
It still is. People have to know you, right? Here, I’m doing more films, I have more presence, and there are a lot of things I am involved in. When I open into a new market, I have to have enough visibility. With Death on the Nile being distributed by Disney, we’re opening to over 15,000 screens across the globe and maybe even more. It’s a record number for me so I think we are creating new audiences as we speak. I’m excited about that but I am not worried about that game.
You have your production house now. What is the kind of stories you are aiming to tell through that?
Stories that are dying to be told! We (Richa Chadha and Ali) wanted to be very careful about the kind of script that we are choosing the kind of narratives we are putting out, the technicians we have with us, but we want to take everybody with us together. We’ve been lucky that we’ve gotten a lot of grants across the globe. It’s an Indo-French production now. In our industry, artists spent most of their time looking for a Godfather and that is a big problem, So it is about time we start empowering every single artist and technician out there in whatever way we can.
Coming back to Bollywood, what is the update on Fukrey 3 and Mirzapur 3?
Mirzapur 3 is slated, it got delayed due to the pandemic and I was shooting for Vishal Bhardwaj’s film, which I need to complete. I was away for a while to shoot for Kandahar. Fukrey 3 will start soon as well. That also got delayed because of the pandemic and my timings.
