(October 1, 2021) When Ali Fazal opted to participate in a play in his school days, little did he know that it was the stepping stone to a career that would take him to Bollywood and Hollywood. Working with the likes of Judi Dench, Vin Diesel and Gal Gadot is no simple feat, but the 35-year-old pulled it off with elan. In a career spanning over a decade, Fazal has impressed everyone with his body of work and is perfectly balancing his work between India and America.
While Fazal has positioned himself as a bankable actor in the world of cinema, he never thought of making it this big especially since he comes from a non-filmy background. Here’s the journey of this Global Indian who moved up the ladder on his sheer talent.
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Basketball to theatre
Born in Delhi, Fazal grew up in Lucknow in a Muslim family. While his father worked in the Middle East, he spent most of his time with his grandparents, especially after his parents separated. The actor attended La Martinere College in his initial years, and later moved to The Doon School in Dehradun. Since childhood, he had an inclination towards sports. Such was the passion that he became a state level basketball player during his school. But destiny had a different path etched for him. It was during one of the matches that he broke his arm and the injury put him out of the game. Around the same time, a cultural event at school caught Fazal’s fancy and he decided to sign up for the staging of William Shakespeare’s Tempest. Little did a teenager Fazal know that this first brush with theatre was setting the path for his future career.
One play led to another, and soon Fazal became a regular in theatre, and he knew that he had found his true calling in acting. But before dipping his toes into the world of films, Fazal graduated in Economics from Xavier College.
Big Bollywood break
But things were set to take a stunning turn for Fazal who was spotted by a unit member of 3 Idiots in a play and referred to him Bollywood director Rajkumar Hirani. That’s how Fazal landed his first role in a Bollywood film. Though it was a cameo, Fazal was able to leave a mark. This special appearance led to a full-fledged role in the 2013 film Fukrey, a film that set the cash registers ringing with its box-office success. The film’s massive success got him roles opposite Bollywood biggies like Vidya Balan in Bobby Jasoos.
Zoomed into Hollywood
But the watershed moment for the 35-year-old came when he bagged a role in one of the most popular Hollywood franchise – Fast and Furious. No one imagined Fazal in a scene with Paul Walker and Vin Diesel in Fast and Furious 7, but the actor managed to surprise everyone with his Hollywood debut. It was in 2014 that Fazal got a call from his agent about the audition while he was vacationing in Mussoorie. “But my interpretation of the scene was totally opposite of what 800 other people had done. I was stuck in the hill station and it was snowing heavily. I could do nothing but improvise with my costumes and everything,” he told Business Standard in an interview. His audition managed to impress the team’s unit and soon Fazal was in Dubai shooting for the part that was the humble beginning of his Hollywood career.
Judi Dench and Ali Fazal in a still from Victoria and Abdulah.
Despite his small role in Fast and Furious, Fazal landed a meaty one opposite legendary Judi Dench in the 2017 film Victoria and Abdul. A beautiful tale of a lesser-known friendship between Queen Victoria and a young Indian clerk Abdul Karim. But getting the role wasn’t a cakewalk for Fazal as he had to give almost 10 auditions to impress director Stephen Frears who is considered to be a taskmaster. “I think by the end I was disillusioned with it. Maybe that was Stephen’s (Frear) way, who knows! The pressure of scoring it, made me live it (the character) and believe in the possibility and reality of it. Or maybe I just got lucky. Who would ever know,” he told Hindustan Times.
While his Hollywood outing made him an international star, Fazal also became the poster boy of OTT back home. With Mirzapur, Fazal became a household name and has been winning the hearts of the audience ever since with the following seasons of the hit show.
After working with the likes of Judi Dench and Vin Diesel, Fazal is set to make a grand appearance in his next Hollywood outing Death on the Nile. Based on Agatha Christie‘s popular novel, the film will have Fazal share screen space with Gal Gadot and Russell Brand, where in he plays a British character. His casting is proof of color-blind casting where an actor’s ethnicity doesn’t necessarily inform the role. “The culture has shifted. We are talking about diversity in so many ways and across the globe. Blind casting is a thing now, and it is happening,” he told Variety.
Ali Fazal in a still from Death on the Nile.
Fazal is one of those rare Bollywood actors who is balancing his work in Hindi cinema as well as American films, and is representing diversity like no one else.
Adil Hussain and Sridevi in a still from English Vinglish.[/caption]
Vivek Gomber with Chaitanya Tamhane and Geetanjali Kulkarni for Court at Venice Film Festival.[/caption]
Shahana Goswami and Vivek Gomber in a still from A Suitable Boy.[/caption]
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