When the first season of Mirzapur was released in 2018, it gave a new face to Ali Fazal. Till then, he was seen doing lighter roles in films like Fukrey (2013) and Happy Bhag Jayegi (2016), which built his persona as a likeable, boy-next-door. All of this changed as he embodied the sturdy, short-tempered college student turned gangster in the crime drama Mirzapur, whose season 3 was released recently. Looking back, he finds the journey extremely rewarding. “Because of it, I can focus on so many other things fearlessly,” he says.In an interaction with CE, Ali opens up about the display of violence and hyper-masculinity by his character in the series, his thoughts on the content paralysis in Hindi films, and what he thinks actors can do to support writers in the industry.Excerpts:When you read the script for the first season, what were your thoughts? Did you think that the show would be so popular?No, not at all. But I knew that the team was quite good and they had a great vision. I got a sense that this is something very different. I had seen this format of web shows working in Hollywood at that time. So, I knew that this would strike a chord even in India. I remember I was offered some other films at that time and people were telling me to do those instead. But I just thought I could really bring something to this character. Also, I would not have cast myself in this role. I had an entirely different image of myself before that, which is why I feel that my being a part of Mirzapur was kind of an anti-casting.The show has a lot of violent scenes. While shooting them, did it make you think that the violence is being glorified in any way?I don’t think it is glorified but I am generally averse to violence so it was difficult for me to shoot these scenes. More than anything, it’s the logic of it that I have always fought and argued about. So, my longest conversations on set were with Gurmeet, our director. Sometimes the shoot would stop due to our discussions. It was important for me to have these conversations as I have to get into the truth of it, the reason for it. At what point are we doing this? Why are we doing this? Not that I am throwing tantrums, but I just feel it becomes necessary to know that this is the natural progression of this character in this context.
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