Brain And The Brawn

While we’re still reeling from Ali Fazal and Vikrant Massey’s stellar performances in Mirzapur, we chatted with the duo to find out about what lies ahead

The year 2018 witnessed a paradigm shift in the way we consumed content in India. There was a significant rise in original homegrown content that saw crisp script writing and brilliant direction. One such show that we lapped up, and that kept us on tenterhooks was Mirzapur. The show, created by Karan Anushman and Puneet Krishna and produced by Excel Entertainment, created by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, was aired on Amazon Prime and comprised nine episodes. Renewed for a second season, the show depicts the gory and hard-hitting reality about the gun mafia and lawlessness in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh. Spearheaded by Ali Fazal, who plays the menacing Guddu bhaiya and Vikrant Massey, who plays the focused Bablu bhaiya, the actors turned out show-stopping performances.

We caught up with the duo to speak about the success of the show, their equation that transcends the screen, and of what the year 2019 holds for them.

THE BRAIN: VIKRANT MASSEY

It was in late December when our attempt to get Vikrant Massey to shoot this feature for Grazia was finally realised. The actor, who was shuttling between Lucknow and New Delhi for his upcoming projects, had just returned to Mumbai, a few days after he bagged the lead opposite Deepika Padukone in Meghna Gulzar’s next, Chhapaak, a film about acid attack victim Laxmi Agarwal. “Meghnaji and I have been wanting to work together since Raazi,” he says. “I feel humbled to get a chance to work with her and Deepika, who is a sincere actor and one of the best in the industry. It’s a big responsibility, but it’s the larger idea that matters the most – to reach out to people with Laxmi’s story.”