Ali Fazal is looking forward to the release of his upcoming Hollywood film Death On The Nile which is a screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s best-selling crime novel of the same name. The upcoming mystery-thriller is directed by Kenneth Branagh who also plays the protagonist, popular detective Hercule Poirot. The film boasts of a stellar cast that includes Gal Gadot, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Dawn French, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, Tom Bateman and Letitia Wright.
In an exclusive video interview with PeepingMoon.com Ali spoke about his experience on working in the Hollywood film and the trolling and ridicule that he received over his blink-and-you-miss-me appearance in the trailer. However, Ali had a befitting reply for all the trolls and gave a proper justification about his role of Andrew Katchadourian in Death On The Nile.
When asked about his take on people’s feedback that he was barely seen in the trailer, Ali said, “No in fact that’s what I feel is given no? For so long, we have also witnessed that blink-and-miss hota hai, that lot of stars have gone there and they have not received due credit for their parts or been stereotyped. So I guess that’s the go to line, right? Of course in Hollywood among those eight suspects I am probably the least marketable in the international circle so it’s totally understandable that I am not there a lot in the trailer and it’s perfectly a creative call. But I don’t feel bad because I don’t measure it like that.”
He further spoke about the difference in promotions between Hollywood and Bollywood and said, “What happens here is that whoever bombards the media most is the biggest king, this concept, this algorithm is wrong. This algorithm is not there. To answer your question, yes we have to celebrate but judge after seeing the work. When Mirzapur came it was likened to Gangs of Wasseypur and I don’t blame them as that was the only reference point we had. But later on it made its own cult. I hope people watch Death on the Nile and decide on their own.”
Ali was also asked that very often actors get acknowledgement in India when they make a name for themselves with International projects and the length of the role is counted as a bigger entity rather than the art per se. To this he said, “Of course, we always seek validation. Around the world in 80 days hamara abhi bhi chal raha hai (We are still going around the world in 80 days). Indian film industry came after the Western film industry hence we are always looking up to them and they keep raising the bar every single time. We’ve just come out of the hell hole that we were in where we went by the formulaic films.
The day you realise that you need to celebrate your writer, your technician, the guy who gives focus are as important as any other and we are still not sorted. At the union level, the contracts the payment they still need to be reviewed. I’m sure the producers will look into it soon.”
Death on the Nile is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on December 18, 2020, by 20th Century Studios.
(Transcribed by: Vandana Srivastawa)
