'Money plays a big part in Bollywood'

Rising star

Ali Fazal is now seven movies old in Bollywood. He debuted with 3 Idiots starring along with Aamir Khan in 2009; and in this span of time, Fazal seems to understand the role money plays in this glamorous industry.

Relating the trend of remakes in Bollywood to fear, he tells Metrolife, “Money plays a big part in Bollywood. And it’s that fear of money people play safe and go for remake of a film which is already a success. There is a problem of reliability that tends people to use this formula, otherwise there is no lack of talent in this industry.”

Fazal, who was also seen in Hollywood movie Fast & Furious 7 believes that though our industry produces “great movies with unmatched emotions and content” but it lags behind from the West in terms of technology.

He says, “When it comes to technology, we are running almost two decades behind the West. Our generation has great actors, directors and they can bridge this gap. Earlier Indian actors played the Indian part in Hollywood movie but this has changed now and we are given lead roles.Likewise, we need to take Bollywood up in terms of technology.”

The 29-year-old’s latest undertaking is Yash Raj Film’s (YRF) web series Bang Baja Baarat. The five-part series is a love story, with all the ethics of YRF’s intact. It was shot like any other feature film is released on the web in parts, on a weekly basis. The actor admits that he was skeptical about this project and had questions before signing the role.

“YRF ventured into the common men’s world. They were quite clear about their view. But I believe that nothing can replace the 70 mm magic and so when they approached me for the role, I had to give it a second thought. I was impressed by the script and decided to experiment to know how it works and eventually realised that it can do no harm but instead, widen my horizons,” says Fazal. Meanwhile, Fazal who was a sports enthusiast, shares how acting accidentally happened to him when he was interested in athletics.

“I broke my arm while playing basketball and because of that I had to drop sports. Since I was good in speaking and dictions, one of my friends told me to try theatre. And it was then that I discovered my nautanki side.”

Fazal will also be seen in an Indo-American film titled For Here or to Go, in which he’s playing the role of an Indian tech entrepreneur in California. The film which deals with getting green card and scams related to it was screened at MAMI.
Alongside he’s working on Anand Rai’s Happy Bhaag Jayega, with Diana Penty and Abhay Deol as co-actors.