Ali Fazal, time and again, has left the audience stunned with his intense and fine performances in films and majorly web content. The actor, who is active in Bollywood as well as Hollywood, is known to be an artist with an eye for perfection. Talking about working in the film industry for years now, Ali, during an interview with a leading daily, opened up on the prevalent favouritism and said a discussion on topics like equal pay should be the focus. 

"We are all artistes and we can’t hate. Sure, we have major issues but that is the case with every industry. Instead of only talking about the problem, let’s think about the solutions. What we need is a change in the system and structure especially how technicians are treated at a contractual level. We should talk about equality of pay, inclusion riders and royalty and make it all legally binding," Ali told.

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The actor further said that he never strategizes but plans his career. "If that was the case, I wouldn’t have done films and OTT together. I made a mark in the webspace and got recognition as the Indian actor working in Hollywood. But till now, I don’t have a huge hit to my name in the theatres. I want to learn and get better at my craft," he added.

Talking about how a person's image is the key factor in getting him a role in the industry, Ali said there is no risk taking due to herd mentality. "My first film was with director Saeed Akhtar Mirza and it was never released. Next was a Shah Rukh Khan production, which didn’t work and I understood what marketing is. I have done three to four films, jiske naam liye toh, bach hua career bhi nikal jayega (laughs). Very few people were batting for me as unfortunately, in our industry, image ke hisaab se roles milte hain. There’s no risk taking as if an action or comedy works, then we see an influx of such movies due to herd mentality. Then the web happened and Guddu’s role in Mirzapur worked and how. In fact, I was dissuaded from doing a web show but I stuck to my gut," the actor said.

Speaking of exploring work opportunities in Hollywood, Ali shared, "Sometimes, I regret that I can’t give all my time to just one place. Unlike how people go to Hollywood often to audition, I didn’t. The offers happened organically. There is so much happening there and if you want to be in an industry, you also have to be there, but that’s not possible. As long as I have a good body of work, it’s all good."

"Without box office collections, no one is a flop on OTT. One could say it’s the slow death of celluloid or the communist era in cinema (laughs). It will be a learning curve. Of course, once the theatres open up, things will go back to normal as nothing beats the magic of theatre," he said while talking about OTT gaining ground amid the pandemic as theatres remain shut. 

(Source: Hindustan Times)