Riz Ahmed has a degree in economics and politics from the Oxford University and an impressive career as a hip-hop rapper. Riz goes by the alias Riz MC and his second album is coming out this year. He tells Deebashree Mohanty that he is happy he got the opportunity to play the lead in Mira Nair’s adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist
He has been there and done that but Riz Changez Ahmed would want to explore other facets of creative arts. The Reluctant Fundamentalist happened just at the right time for this young rapper-cum-artist who desperately wants to try his hand at a Anurag Kashyap film. “We have been talking for a long time now but nothing interesting has popped up. Just waiting for the perfect project, and bang! I will arrive in B-town. India is a fantastic country and the film industry is fascinating. You guys treat stars like God. That’s awesome,” Ahmed says from london.
Although he was made to travel extensively for this project, Ahmed was slightly upset of not being able to squeeze in a visit to lahore. Blame that on a hectic shoot schedule and the fact that mother of newborn, Kate Hudson, had to wrap up the film as soon as possible. In fact, Ahmed tells you that he hardly had any time to prepare.
“I have been a voracious reader and luckily, Mohsin Hamid is my favourite. So his novel was, in the true sense, the backbone of my research. Hamid was around to give me notes all through the India part of the shoot. I wasn’t able to visit lahore because of filming schedules, so Ali Sethi and he were instrumental in letting me know about the place. Once I understood the situation and got to know my character, the film was one helluva experience, a rollercoaster, really,” he says.
But the excitement and intense shooting schedules took a toll on this 6ft something Pakistani who hibernated for a month immediately after the film was under production. “It was a strain on the body. We were shooting tirelessly for days because we wanted to stick to a production date. The schedule was intense because the makers aspired to make it in a big budget Hollywood movie style. It was physically the most draining project I have been a part of for a three-month period! After wrapping up the shoot, I slept for over a week just to get the energy back,” he says.
Not a man short on humour, Ahmed tells you that at a personal level he did agree with Changez’s character. The only thing that set the two apart was the latter’s penchant for mathematics. “He was a Pakistani trying to navigate two cultures and somewhere down the line, I think we all do that. In fact, I know of people who are constantly navigating many more cultures. We can all connect with the idea of trying to work out who we are. We are made to accept various things in life, told to adjust to many contrasting cultures and situations. Once we have figured that out, we are told to abandon one and stick to the other. These are confusing times and it depends on you to choose what is good for you. That is what Changez's dilemma was and I completely related to it,” Ahmed says.
There is one quality that makes him a current favourite among other frontrunners in Hollywood — his penchant for music and his out-of-the-world voice that is “simply enchanting” according to his co-stars.
But Ahmed is serious about acting. “At the end of the day, these are all creative arts. You cannot differentiate one from the other. I love doing both and I would want to try my hands at other things too. But let’s see what is in store for me. I am excited about the upcoming album and also enthused about a few films that are lined up. I have Closed Circuit with Eric Bana out this year, and I’m also developing projects myself,” the actor in Ahmed tells you.
Apart from Kashyap and a few newage cinema filmmakers, Ahmed is in awe of Mira Nair who directed him in The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
“She is such an intelligent filmmaker that I was in awe of her for most part of the film. She was an inspiration by herself. And she has a very different approach towards filmmaking — she used to share her songs’ playlist with the entire starcast just so they would relax and get into the skin of the character. Even her way of dealing with her stars was very refreshing. She had a separate modus operandi for each of us. I am hoping that we get to work together in many more films,” he says.