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The second season of Mirzapur is all set for its launch on Amazon Prime on October 23, amidst calls to boycott the show on social media over lead actor Ali Fazal’s speech on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Lachmi Deb Roy spoke to Fazal, who played the character of Guddu Bhaiya in Mirzapur Season 1 and became a household name thereafter. Excerpts:
Q) The first season of Mirzapur got an amazing response. What can you tell us about Mirzapur Season 2, which now has just you and Shweta Tripathi from Season 1?
I love Golu and Dimpy’s transition from the first season. I don’t want to give away too much as I would like the audience to watch Mirzapur Season 2, just like the way they did Mirzapur Season 1.
Q) How much has your character Guddu Bhaiya changed in Mirzapur Season 2? Guddu is not the lazy guy that he was in season 1, who relied on his brother Bablu (Vikrant Massey) for his brains and was obsessed with all the cool things in life. Now, in the sequel, he starts to use his own little brain that he has.
Q)Mirzapur Season 1 has a very unpredictable and powerful ending, how different is season 2?
The show’s world is still Mirzapur, no matter how serious things get, the flavour is still there and we have to give you that. Along with giving you shocks, the comedy also seeps in, the seriousness is a couple of notches above from what we have shown in Season 1. It's full paisa vasool. Maybe the third season is also in the cards.
Q) When you were doing Mirzapur 2 did the pressure of having done Mirzapur 1 so brilliantly ever occur to you?
You do feel like suddenly there are lesser people and you are carrying the burden of all the performances. I actually missed teaming up with Vikrant Massey, our team was so strong in Season 1 that I felt a bit lonely. The emotions are high so the stakes are high too in Season 2.
Q) What lessons have you learnt from the pandemic and how good or bad has it been for you?
What I realised that suddenly there is a lot of time. Half the world has gone into introspection and it’s nice that there’s a lot of enthusiasm. But, there’s a sudden halt in our normal and this is the new normal that we have entered into. God knows what the next normal will be. It’s scary but yes, it’s given me time to stop, think and recalibrate. These days, I wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning, I do my meditation, yoga and then start my day. Script readings are obviously happening but it’s interesting because I am getting used to the idea of marketing meetings happening on video calls. Film meetings and other interactions too are also happening on video calls. In 10 days, I managed to read four to five books.
