Actor Ali Fazal, one of the few Indian actors to build a portfolio in Western cinema, has offered a frank assessment of what it actually takes to break into Hollywood, saying the process works very differently from how most Indian actors assume.
Ali Fazal reveals how Indian actors can break into Hollywood: “Don’t be shy of giving auditions”
Fazal made the remarks during a visit to Delhi for the promotions of his new crime thriller series Raakh, directed by Prosit Roy, in which he plays a cop for the first time in his career.
On cracking Hollywood
Speaking to Hindustan Times, Fazal said, “Don’t be shy of giving auditions. It’s one of the most humbling experiences. A lot of actors have this misconception, ‘I’ll go there, find an agency, and then life will start.’ It’s the other way around actually. You have to get through the auditions, land one part, and then the agencies come and get you. It works a little differently as opposed to India where you get under an umbrella and then wait.”
Fazal is among the few Indian actors to have built a presence in international cinema. He made his early Hollywood appearances with a small role in The Other End of the Line (2008) and later featured in the American miniseries Bollywood Hero. His breakthrough came with a cameo in Furious 7 (2015), before landing his biggest international role opposite Judi Dench in Victoria & Abdul (2017), where he portrayed Abdul Karim. He subsequently appeared in Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile (2022) and the Gerard Butler-led action thriller Kandahar (2023), steadily navigating the Western industry through auditions and a diverse range of roles, a path he now encourages aspiring Indian actors to embrace.
On preparing for Raakh
On preparing for his first cop role, Fazal said, “A lot of workshops, a lot of readings that I needed to do for myself to understand how they see this world from the get-go. That was very important. It’s a cop role, vardi hai, which also was a great lead-up because I was like ‘costume trial kab hoga, costume trial kab hoga’. And of course, that first day arrived and I realised, ‘Fit nahi aa raha. Something wasn’t fitting right, nahi ye Prosit ko shayad pasand nahin aayega.’ It’s been a slow and steady puzzle arriving at it.”
Fazal’s performance in Raakh also drew a response from his wife, actor Richa Chadha, who said she was keen to follow a similar path when asked about her own Hollywood plans.
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