Everybody is about looks, says Ali Fazal

Ali Fazal has been a part of many international and Indian projects, but the web series that made him a household name was the ‘Amazon Prime Video’ series ‘Mirzapur’. Playing Guddu Pandit in ‘Mirzapur’ brought Ali a different kind of fame and while on the show, the character first appears to be the kind of man who is only focused on his looks, but the audience discovers more about him as the show proceeds. For Ali, it was a challenge to make Guddu a character that wasn’t just about his looks.

In a roundtable chat with ‘Zoom’, Ali said that at first, everyone was just focused on the looks, but he wanted to draw people inside the character’s head. “Like ‘Mirzapur’, I thought at first everybody was about looks. Like how we should look. And my biggest thing was, ‘I want to run away from that and pull people into this guy’s head’. It’s always fun when you are in my little toy land. Then, I can play. Then I’m having fun,” he said.

In an earlier chat with ‘Jist’, Fazal shared that he chose not to have any protein shakes or other additives to bulk up for Guddu but made other changes in his diet and lifestyle. “The most boring time in my life was working out for ‘Mirzapur’. I couldn’t sleep. We would work out for three hours every day and while doing that, you have to maintain your peace because we are creators. I refused to use the wrong means,” he said.

He also shared in the same chat that he almost fought with his director because he did not see Guddu having a full head of hair. “For Guddu, I had to almost fight with my director at the time because I didn’t see him having hair,” he said. Ali mentioned that he was first offered the role of Munna, which was eventually played by Divyenndu.