Hindi film audiences know well that the acting world rarely anoints new superstars, least of all those who don’t come from film families. But sometimes, it has no choice, because the actors in question are just that unignorable. For our January cover, we decided to shine the spotlight on three brilliantly talented performers who have managed exactly this feat.
Going by their rock-solid resumés and the sheer variety of projects they have signed, they’ve earned the moniker of The Busiest Men in Showbiz. With their chaotic work schedules, it took months to secure the near-impossible task of photographing them, and then countless calls to schedule their interviews.
There’s the famously media-shy Pankaj Tripathi, who is as thoughtful and self-possessed off the big screen as he is on it. There’s Jaideep Ahlawat, who went from 'Who’s that guy?' to a dependable actor with a solid repertoire of relatable characters—flawed, familiar, often failing. And finally, we have Ali Fazal, who has the aura and looks of a superstar without any of the hubris. None of them are new to the limelight, but over the years, they've proved they're in it for the long game. They are everywhere, on your laptop screens and in theatres, and together, they are shaping today’s cinema.
Pankaj Tripathi
Canali blazer, shirt and jeans. Aldo shoes
Pankaj Tripathi speaks in carefully measured words, whether he’s looking back at his childhood spent in Bihar’s Belsand village or finding common ground between acting and politics (“both are performing arts, after all”).
At times, he sounds more like a Zen monk than a hugely successful film star, whose last project (Stree 2) broke records to become the highest grossing Hindi film of the year. “There’s no need to fly too high when you’re successful, and there’s no need to get frustrated by failure,” he says. “Sam-bhava mein raho, stay calm in both victory and defeat. After all, what do you really need in life? Good sleep, the company of your family, your favourite food. The rest is all mithya, illusion.”
Bhanuj Kappal chats with Tripathi about cutting out photos of Madhuri Dixit from the newspaper, the pact he made with his wife, feeling burnt out, and more.
Jaideep Ahlawat
Dhruv Kapoor coat
When Jaideep Ahlawat isn’t hopping from one movie set to another, when he isn’t slipping under the skin of this or that character, when he isn’t perusing scripts, he’s sprawled out at home, motionless like “a crocodile”, in his own telling. “I sit in a corner and mindlessly watch something on my laptop or the TV all day,” says the 44-year-old actor.
Downtime has been a luxury of late for Ahlawat. He’s so busy that on the Sunday of this conversation with The Nod, he flew into Mumbai on an early morning flight from Delhi after attending a function, caught a few hours of rest, attended the Filmfare OTT Awards, picked up two awards, for the films Maharaj and Jaane Jaan, and then leapt into a car for a seven-hour drive to Dhule in central Maharashtra to shoot an upcoming series. “I’m blessed to be busy—I am happy to be getting so much work,” he says.
Nila Iyer chats with the actor on his love for long drives, getting used to airport selfies, and the one exam he couldn’t clear despite repeated attempts.
Ali Fazal
Ashish Soni jacket. Zara t-shirt. 431-88 by Shweta Kapur trousers
Despite his conventional good looks and acting chops, Ali Fazal never made it as an A-list ‘hero’ in Hindi films. His first movie as the lead, a 2011 Shah Rukh Khan production called Always Kabhi Kabhi, sank without a trace. Before and after that, there were scattered breakthroughs: a cameo in 2009’s biggest hit, 3 Idiots, and Fukrey in 2013, which has gained sleeper hit status over time. But they never got him the success he fantasised about.
Before you could write him off, though, he started making a name for himself in global productions. There was Furious 7 (part of the Fast & Furious franchise) and Victoria & Abdul with Dame Judi Dench, with whom he also appeared in Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile. These films seemed more in keeping with his suave, urbane image. But before you could put him in that box, he switched gears again—and became a household name for his performance as Guddu Pandit, an unhinged gangster from the badlands of UP, in Prime Video’s gritty crime thriller series Mirzapur.
Samira Sood chats with Ali Fazal about redemption for his Mirzapur character, what he does to stay creative, and more.
