Psychological thrillers are a niche and a tricky genre to ace, says Ali Fazal

Fresh out of the success of Mirzapur 2, Ali Fazal has been fielding a host of fresh offers. But the one that the actor has his heart set upon is a psychological thriller that will see him in a deliciously dark light.

For the first time in his career, Fazal has been offered a part out of his comfort zone simply owing to the genre of the film it belongs to. He shot for a film written by Hussain Dalal in Khandala in September. The almost two-week schedule had a small crew and will be seen on the festival circuit at first.

The Death on the Nile actor has always been a fan of psychological thrillers as a genre and for him to have been offered a film in this space was extremely gratifying. He says, “Thrillers are one my favourite genre and I always enjoy edge of the seat screenplays. I have had the fortune of growing up on so many of those.”

The genre according to him is almost “non existent” in our films and hopes that films like the one he is doing are experimented in the future. Personally, Fazal has always been deeply inspired by the works in this space such as The Girl on the Train, Get Out, Stranger, Cell 211 and several such.

“I could fill up pages listing them. I was excited when the chance to work on this experimental project came my way given not many writers write comfortably in this space. And I have never seen a script that makes me more uncomfortable. I suppose it was the timing too. It almost unnerved me. It was an easy yes that entailed a hard prep. With one part done, I will move to the next leg where I will understand the psyche of the character because we are trying to create a character that resonates with everyone and I mean everyone,” he says.

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