Ali Fazal on being typecast as ‘urban’

Actor Ali Fazal, who is busy working on Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Milan Talkies, wonders why people have always thought of him as an urban actor unsuited for small town stories.

During an on-set interaction, the Fukrey actor spoke about how he landed a role in Dhulia’s film.

“The experience has been nice. I’ve always looked up to Tigmanshu sir’s work. I went to his office very casually once... I’ve never gone to someone’s office like that. I guess it was just fate. I got a call from him three years later, asking, ‘What are you doing?’ And I came [on board].

“I’m very excited to get on to this journey. It’s something different. I have not been a part of such projects before. I’ve had a very different image — urban, subtle — I don’t know why, I don’t know, that was wrong,” Fazal said.

Milan Talkies is a small town love story that revolves around the predicament of single-screen theatres in the days of the multiplex. Since the narrative is based in North India, it requires a certain accent.

Dhulia says Fazal was an easy choice for the lead role.

“I have kept a track on the kind of work Ali is doing. He is also one actor who always has one foot in the West, which is good cinema. His training is good and he comes from a good background as an actor,” he said.

“Also, I wanted the lead actor to have that attitude and lehza [tone] that people of Allahabad, Lucknow and Awadh region have. If I would have cast an actor who is not from here, the actor would have put it on and it wouldn’t have looked natural. Since Ali is from Lucknow, banaa banaaya mil gaya [I got it ready made],” Dhulia quipped. —