Ali Fazal says he lost many good projects trying to balance Hollywood and Bollywood

Hindustan Times

12-07-2025

Actor Ali Fazal has been part of several international projects over the years, ranging from cameos in blockbusters like Furious 7 and Death on the Nile to starring roles in Victoria & Abdul and Kandahar. However, several times, these appearances have come at the cost of other roles. Ali Fazal had a prominent role in Gerard Butler-starrer Kandahar.
On balancing international and Indian projects
In a chat with HT, Ali talks about how tricky it is to balance being a part of both Indian and international projects. "It is tough," he says, "The real hard part is that I lose out a lot. There are two to three projects that I feel bad at losing out on. My colleagues have done them and done a good job, so it would be unfair to name them. But it's all good. I am happy for them."
Ali says that trying to work in the West means he often has no releases in India for long durations. "There is a common complaint when people say 'tum itna dikhte nahi ho (you aren't seen much)'. But what can I do when I am trying to balance the two industries? I have seen the other side, so I want to do more work there," he explains.
On doing Hollywood 'sans fanfare'
We point out to him that he stars in several big Hollywood projects without much fanfare, as opposed to several other Indian actors. Ali laughs and responds, "I am not oblivious to it. I don't have an 'I don't care' attitude. I do care. At the end of the day, we are presenting ourselves, and I want to do that."
For now, the man is focusing on Hindi cinema. He recently starred in Anurag Basu's romantic drama Metro In Dino. Up next for him is Rajkumar Santoshi's Lahore 1947, which also stars Sunny Deol, Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty, and Shabana Azmi. He will then reprise his role as Guddu Pandit in Mirzapur, the movie. The film will act a culmination to the popular Mirzapur show.