Ali Fazal has shared screen space with some of Hollywood’s biggest names, including Dame Judi Dench in Victoria & Abdul, Vin Diesel in Furious 7, and Gerard Butler in Kandahar. But it was a chance encounter with Al Pacino that left the actor genuinely starstruck.
In a conversation with Variety India, Fazal described Pacino as his ultimate cinematic idol, saying, “The buck stops there. I have chased that man since I was a kid. I remember that in my hostel I would list every film of his I wanted on the wall because it was not available. So, I would somehow get them and watch these films.”
A run through London
The meeting happened almost by accident. Fazal was in London shooting Death on the Nile when he realised, just 20 minutes before the gates opened, that the premiere of The Irishman was that evening.
He recalled the moment, saying, “I couldn’t get a cab… Luckily, it was in that vicinity. I’ve worn my suit, and I’ve run. It was so filmi!”
He made it just in time. “The doors have opened. There are bouncers and people. And I’ve gone straight to the bar because I needed to have water. I stop there, and I turn to my right, and he’s right in front of me. He’s just looking at me smiling,” Fazal said. “That was the first time I was really starstruck because when you’re working with somebody it’s fine. It’s enriching. It’s like, ‘This is me, and I take whatever you’re going to give.’ But here, I wasn’t working with him. I was just a fan.”
Theatre and The Godfather
The two ended up speaking about theatre. Fazal said he told Pacino what he was working on, and Pacino responded warmly, given his own long association with Shakespeare and stage work.
Fazal also revealed that one piece of trivia he has long shared with friends concerns Pacino’s journey to The Godfather. “The number of auditions that Pacino had done for The Godfather. I used to talk about like all these things that he had gone through. I was really obsessed at that time,” he said.
On the work front, Fazal is currently seen in the Amazon Prime Video true-crime series Raakh, in which he plays Sub-Inspector Jayprakash Jatav, a rookie Dalit cop navigating institutional prejudice while investigating a pair of killers in 1970s Delhi. He will next be seen reprising his role as Guddu Pandit in Mirzapur: The Movie, directed by Gurmmeet Singh, which releases in cinemas worldwide on September 4, 2026.
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