Photo: Jaffer Hassan | Outfit: Deepak & Fahad | Grooming: NGents
Acting, however, is an unpredictable profession where you never know where your next pay cheque is going to come from. His parents are two of Pakistani entertainment’s most celebrated personalities — Rahat and Sahira Kazmi — and they must be well aware of the fickle nature of the field. Were they enthusiastic about him opting to become an actor?
“My parents have always given me the space to do whatever I want to do,” says Ali. “They gave me advice about how I needed to build my career but they never told me that I couldn’t pursue it. As far back as I can remember, I have always wanted to be an actor. Also, I was never a stranger to the camera. Whenever my mum couldn’t find a child to fit into a role, she would just bring me in. I was only two years old when my mum was filming Nayyara Noor’s patriotic anthem, Watan ki mitti gawah rehna and she woke me and my father early in the morning and told us that she needed us to be in the video. I’m the child in the video, waving the Pakistan flag about!”
He continues, “I also played my father’s childhood in the PTV drama Dhoop Kinaray. By the time I was a young adult, when people asked me what I did, I would tell them that I was an actor. They would get confused sometimes, and say, ‘But no, what do you do for a living?’ But this is all that I have ever done and all that I ever wanted to do. I’ve been living my dream.”
Considering that his father was one of TV’s most enigmatic heroes, did he ever feel the pressure of being compared to him? “Actually, no. I can proudly say that I have paved my own way, and people recognise me for who I am and the work that I do, not for what my parents did.”
Ali’s words ring true particularly because one would have expected him to score big projects by cashing in on his surname. Instead, he has proven his mettle with role after role, slowly but surely.
I do believe that I’m destined for more, and that the industry is yet to tap into my full potential. I have a lot to offer as a character actor and a leading man — I’m also a very good dancer.”
Struggles of a young actor
“In 2008, I got married to my high school sweetheart, moved to Toronto and enrolled in a film school there,” he recalls. “The curriculum was for three years but I completed it in a year-and-a-half by taking on extra courses. At the same time, I was constantly going in for auditions. I was also working odd jobs in order to earn some extra money. At one point, I was a salesman at the American clothing brand Hollister Co. — they are known for hiring only good-looking people, so that made me feel good about myself!” he laughs.
“About a year later, I joined a company that used to advertise for young actors and then trick them into taking products to different malls, setting up a kiosk there and selling the product in a theatrical way. I remember going with some other actors to a mall in Mississauga, where I set up the product display and began my sales pitch. Immediately, I was surrounded by hundreds of people. Mississauga has a huge desi community and they recognised me from the work that I had done in Pakistan. There were aunties that peered at me with concern, offering me visiting cards of their relatives who owned petrol stations or drove taxis, and could help me in getting a ‘proper’ job. That day, I rode the subway back home, clutching all those visiting cards, and decided that I was not going to do this. I quit the company and told them that they shouldn’t trick young actors like this.
“Soon afterwards, I came across an audition for a play called The Indian Wants The Bronx. It was one of the plays that Al Pacino had acted in early on in his career. The requirement was for an old man but I walked in and auditioned anyway. They loved my audition but told me that I was too young for the role. A week later, they called me in and told me that I was hired.”
The Indian Wants The Bronx turned out to be a turning point in Ali’s career. The reviews were great and an agent approached him and took him on as a client. “My agent began to get me more roles. He still does. For seven years, I was just performing in different projects until, in 2015, Mehreen came to me with the story for Jackson Heights. The drama had a script that had been lying around for some time — most producers and directors felt that it was too risky. But Mehreen loved it and so did I. It marked my comeback into Pakistani entertainment.”
Jackson Heights, of course, became a big hit and Ali’s performance was critically acclaimed. Then again, critical acclaim has always come easy to Ali. In retrospect, does he regret having left Pakistan at a time when he was getting his pick of offers, only to return when the competition had gotten much tougher? “Do I say, ‘I coulda been a contender, I coulda been somebody’?” he quotes Marlon Brando from On The Waterfront. “Not at all. ‘Maula nu maula na maaray te maula naeen marda!’ [If God doesn’t Himself kill Maula, Maula will never die! — a quote from the iconic Maula Jatt.] I don’t have any regrets. If I hadn’t experienced all that I have, I couldn’t have brought the intensity and gravitas that I’m able to bring my roles now. You have to burn all your boats to build a city. That’s what I did.”
Keeping things real