Mirzapur Season 3 released last friday. It has been a journey of more than six years for Mirzapur’s cast and while each one of them witnessed the show grow into something big, the love their characters received has also been very flattering. One of the most loved characters in the show is played by Guddu Bhaiyya Ali Fazal. Before the premiere of Season 3 of Mirzapur, Fazal spoke to Indianexpress.com about his journey with the show. He also shared that acting was never his plan, but one incident changed the course of his life.
Talking about Mirzapur getting immense success, Ali Fazal shared, “We didn’t know this show would work and be a hit. After the release, for a week we thought we had fun shooting this, so it’s okay. But after a week, the show started behaving like a monster of its own. Since then there has been no looking back. It became too big, we didn’t expect it to.”
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Ali Fazal, who maintains that his role was the hardest to play in Season 2 of Mirzapur, also revealed if there were any apprehensions about the bold content and language of Mirzapur. Sharing his view on the same, Ali said, “I didn’t have an apprehension because this stuff has already worked in the West. I had the chance to work in the West, so I have seen all this. We have been watching these shows growing up. Only apprehension for me was that I never entered a gym per se. I am a sports person, so for me to transform into that gym body was irritating.”
Being an actor was never Fazal’s plan. He wanted to play some sport for India. Interestingly, when we asked them if there was a time in his life that transformed him into a very different person, the 3 Idiots actor shared, “It was when I broke my arm. I was in school, a basketball player. It was a big decision. I went back to the sport after breaking my arm and dislocating my shoulder. I was the team captain. I was in boarding school and we had seasonal sports, so I couldn’t help myself. I again dislocated my shoulder and had to get operated, that is when I was told to make that switch to cultural stuff. That’s how I started acting too. But a part of me wanted to keep that discipline. I carry that with me to date. My entire life changed. I was thinking of playing hockey or basketball for India, but a science guy had to leave that and come to Xaviers and do economics. That moment of switching gave me sleepless nights. It felt like shedding your skin.”
Once Ali Fazal shed the skin of a sportsman and donned the greasepaint, he never looked back. Today shooting for any project is sacrosanct for him. It’s the time he is most vulnerable. When asked if he sees himself on screen once a project is released, Fazal said, “I used to feel extremely critical, and it would drive me insane when I watched. Then I stopped watching myself for a while. Now I am okay with it.”
During the conversation, Fazal also quipped how every season of Mirzapur has left him with an injury that has stayed on for a while. In the show, walking with a stick, left his forearm injured. Talking about the same, Fazal said, “I recently did dirt biking in an English film Kandahar and it aggravated this really bad forearm injury which has become a chronic issue in my life. Mirzapur always leaves me with injuries. Every season has given me some injury which has stayed on for a bit. (Laughs)”
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Every cast member of Mirzapur has shared that one quality about the show is that it catches the attention of all age groups. While Fazal also feels the same, he shared how he made sure the show was not played at his home. “My grandmother would kill me,” the actor added.