With one foot in India and the other in the West, Ali Fazal, as he says, is being true to both sides. He is enjoying what he calls the “democratic” journey in cinema. While Fazal’s most memorable turn in Bollywood among the dozen-odd features he has been in remains his minor role in Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots (2009), the actor is making rapid strides in Hollywood albeit without any planned strategy. After being seen in one of the titular roles in the British-American biographical comedy-drama Victoria And Abdul alongside screen icon Judi Dench, next up for the actor is the film adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1937 detective fiction novel, Death On The Nile, directed by Kenneth Branagh.
“Playing one of Agatha Christie’s characters is iconic. I never thought it would happen. It goes into the books and I am very glad that I will be part of this for the rest of my days. We were like one unit travelling from hotel to set and even within the movie we were all together all the time. It was like one huge party on a boat, of course, many times the boat was stuck inside the studio and it won’t be moving (laughs heartily) but nonetheless the environment created was very posh. This adaptation is from the novel released in the 1930’s so you get to dress well, look sharp, we were surrounded by great technicians and one of the best ones in the business. We had one of my favourite cameramen Haris (Zambarloukos) shooting this and there was most of the principal cast like Gal Gadot, Annette Bening, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and actor-director Kenneth. It was a lot of stuff for me to put my head around; it was a big learning experience,” says Fazal.
Death On The Nile is Branagh's follow-up to his 2017 blockbuster The Murder On The Orient Express, which was also based on the author's book of the same name. Branagh, who also reprises his role of iconic detective Hercule Poirot in the follow-up, had gushed about working with Fazal, calling him a "real details man" in an interview last year. “I had a lot of sessions with Kenneth months before we started filming because I am very particular about the costumes. I kept on going about costumes but he said we need to lock our look, hair, eyes, just the physical stuff and the way he is going to talk,” says the actor.
Fazal plays one of the suspects and a British character named Andrew Katchadourian, a cousin of Gadot's Linnet Ridgeway-Doyle in the film. “Mine is a very English character, I have to speak Queen’s English which has to be very clear and proper. Then we went into his backstory, my relationship with Gal’s character, we grew up together. I have ended up becoming a lawyer, her accountant, pretty much her confidante. Those dynamics were very interesting to put down on paper and then we started exploring. And I feed off a lot of my co-actors, my director, sometimes I find myself a bit of a cheat..(laughs). I observe and take something from everybody. During filming every person I am interacting with unknowingly has something stolen from him or her (laughs),” reveals the actor.
While the story was written predominantly with white characters, the film is being portrayed by a host of actors of colour, to which, Fazal points out that they aren’t preaching too much about the ethnicities that they belong to. “We didn’t want to do that because it is an Agatha Christie book that has been made into a film already, you don’t want to dive too far away from there. It was nice that we were already celebrating it with such a diverse cast, so everybody had a consistent approach to playing these parts,” he says.
Since there have been a lot of discussions around colour-blind casting and the need for South Asians’ representation and inclusion in Hollywood and international cinema, the actor says, “Blind casting, diversifying is a great step forward but at the same time it is important recognising us for who we are and what we can bring to the table. With blind casting you can fit as many films but what is happening? There are films being tailor-made across the globe for different ethnicities. We have South-East Asian superheroes coming out, then you have Ms Marvel coming in and Farhan Akhtar, Fawad Khan are all part of it.”
Fazal, who has time and again said that he doesn’t want to abandon India yet, furthers, “Definitely we are getting a bigger piece of the pie. It is not very far away just that it is natural for it to take time because we have our own film industry which is also one part of the Indian film industry and we have to recognise that. I am still gunning for even Malayalam films, I am ready to spend six months learning the language because there is some mind-blowing stuff coming from there. That is also the reason why some part of me keeps me here and does not want to move out to the west so soon. One day I might have to, who knows?”
On the personal front, Fazal is in a happy space of life; he has been in a relationship with Richa Chadha for a long time now. “Marriage is soon but we want to take our own time and we are very happy as we are,” he says. Professionally, 2021 has been a good year for Fazal both, in Hollywood as well as back home, including signing and filming his next Hollywood project – Kandahar with Gerard Butler – and being part of Vishal Bharadwaj’s spy thriller Khufiya. There is also an untitled Aarti Kadav film and the third instalment in the Fukrey franchise. “I have shot half of Khufiya, then we took a break so I could finish Kandahar. It is an adrenaline heavy action-packed film but it also has an interesting narrative. Gerard is a very different energy and a very interesting person more than an actor. I got to spend a lot of time with him off set. It is a relationship that I will cherish for a long time. I am waiting for us to meet again once the movie is ready,” says Fazal.
“Khufiya is very close to my heart. For Vishal Sir, I am ready to give even a passing shot in his film. He called to ask if I was free and I told him that I will free myself for him whenever he needs me. It’s every actor's dream to be part of his film. I always wanted to work with someone of his calibre. It is an interesting story and for once it is not Shakespeare, not that I would have complained because I am a Shakespeare fan. It is taken from true events and there is Tabu, me and Wamiqa (Gabbi)…we have got a great bunch of actors. Probably there is a phase for these kinds of stories but I am craving for a love story. When was the last time we saw a pure love story without a twist? It could be just a conversation. But I can’t be someone who can choose his projects yet, I am not in that position but I am hoping something comes my way,” he adds.
Last year, Fazal and Chadha announced their own production house, Pushing Buttons Studio. Their first film will be Girls Will Be Girls, helmed by Brooklyn-based filmmaker Shuchi Talati. “We want to take one step at a time. We are halfway through that step. Our first production is Indo-French, we have one of the best writers and she is directing it herself. Mostly it will be an all girls’ team and Richa and I are not acting in it. We wanted to create a space for artists to freely come and go."
Coming back to Christie’s mystery, the film that was shot in the UK and on location in Morocco, is releasing in theatres around the world after a delay due to the pandemic. “It has been a while...we shot sometime at the end of 2019 but I am excited. Considering the time we are living in we got a great bunch of theatres. So I am glad that we had that little delay,” says Fazal. On the endless conversations about the end of theatres with the emergence of streaming platforms, Fazal says, “Silver screen is always going to be a novelty and exciting and it should be because that is how cinema began. Someone said it so beautifully that a film is complete when the community watching happens. When people gather in a hall and that first projector opens the film that we shouldn’t lose. I know we are all living in our little algorithms, our little homes and the comfort of our drawing rooms but we grew up making plans every Friday. You watch it in theatres with people and maybe strangers...I rather do that with strangers in a hall than strangers on twitter,” he laughs.
When asked if the concept of star value has got a bit sketchy with new films releasing digitally given the shutdown of theatres in the wake of pandemic, Fazal says, “Well, perception is going to change, who knew that OTT is going to change the game. I didn’t know Mirzapur is going to turn into one mammoth thing that started behaving bigger than films which suddenly makes you realise that you can’t just let that star ego take you all the way; you have to be smart about it. Now isn’t that cool? We all look up to that star system…but I don’t know what that system is. But some people are stars and they will always remain stars and that is fine. I love watching my Shah Rukh Khan, Salman and Aamir films. They are stars and they will always remain one. Dilip (Kumar) Saab will always remain a star. I watch Mughal-e-Azam before every film I start,” he signs off.
Seema Sinha is a Mumbai-based mainstream entertainment journalist who has been covering Bollywood and television industry for over two decades. Her forte is candid tell-all interviews, news reporting and newsbreaks, investigative journalism and more. She believes in dismissing what is gossipy, casual, frivolous and fluff.
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