Of film and the future: FAZAL LEADS THE PACK

Juggling Hollywood, Bollywood, and Indian web platforms, Ali Fazal seems to have quite the year lined up ahead of him. He delves into a conversation about everything that cinema, actors, and the digital age will offer in this decade and by the looks of it, we have a lot to look forward to.

- Samreen Tungekar

Remember Ali Fazal as Joy Lobo, the cute engineering student who killed himself in 3 Idiots? We all do, but his fans on social media comments with dialogues from Mirzapur on posts that have nothing to do with the show, making sure Guddu Bhaiya is always top-of-mind recall. It’s hard to believe it’s the same person. So, when I meet Fazal, that’s what we decide to discuss — his journey and growth as an actor, the evolution of the cinematic space, and now with the web dominating our screens, what the future really holds for the world of entertainment.

After dabbling in a few projects in India, Fazal has started carving a niche for himself in Hollywood, and has reached a point where he can be choosy about the projects he decides to do there. As an actor, he feels like he has seen the change in himself, as well as the industry around him. “I’ve pretty much evolved like any other creature in this jungle called Bollywood, and Hollywood, in my case. But it’s been a democratic journey. I started doing lead parts in Hollywood before I got a lead part here. I’ve been a part of the batch that brought in the whole web series evolution with Bang Baja Baaraat. A lot of the decisions I’ve made have been based on gut instinct. There was a time when I got a barrage of really horrible films, and I was literally just doing everything that came my way. I had no direction whatsoever. I have learned on the job because I didn’t get to study acting, or the grammar of it,” he candidly says.

When he did Mirzapur, a lot of big directors told him that the web series trend would pick up much later and that he should focus on doing films instead. But something about the project clicked for him. “Till Fukrey, in fact, if I was a producer, I wouldn’t cast Ali Fazal in a Mirzapur. But there was something that made me feel like this is going to work,” he slowly says.