The versatile actor Ali Fazal, who will be seen playing the role of a gangster in his upcoming Amazon Prime series Mirzapur has been known as 'Mir Fateh' in the core interiors of Banaras and Lucknow.
Interestingly, this is not the name of his character in the series. Actually, the actor registered himself with this name to fight real underground matches for Mirzapur.
In Mirzapur, Fazal plays the role of Guddu Pandit, a gangster set to take over a lawless land where trade of arms and drugs is normal life. The makers made the actor go through an intensive physical transformation bulking up to look like a convincing and intimating gangster on screen.
Since Fazal has not essayed a grey character on screen, he immersed himself into the filming of the series. So much so that apart from a gruelling physical transformation to adapt to the fighting sequences of the show and to do his stunts right, Ali took to discovering underground fight clubs or ‘clans’ as he puts it, in Banaras, old Delhi and Lucknow.
With the help of his friend, Fazal attended the gatherings with utmost secrecy to learn the fighting techniques of raw underground fighters. He even participated in two such matches and suffered multiple bruises leaving everyone rather concerned with the changes in his physical appearance.
Speaking about the fighting sequences, Ali said, “I had to change my name to be able to enter those places. Shooting for Mirzapur has been scary, yet adventurous. I would not recommend this to others. To them, I'd say, try acting for a change and forget method. I just chanced upon underground fight clans in Banaras and Bhadohi during my research, where I picked up some tricks of the trade and it helped."
Looks like, it all did pay well as Fazal looks an innocent man turning into the most menacing bloke in the town of Mirzapur that his character Guddu belongs to in the show. We wish, Ali aka Mir all the best for his endeavours.
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