Ali Abbas Zafar has plenty of reasons to celebrate. Alongside getting married on January 4 to Iranian model Alicia, the filmmaker and scre...
Ali Abbas Zafar has plenty of reasons to celebrate. Alongside getting married on January 4 to Iranian model Alicia, the filmmaker and screenwriter is making his web series debut with Tandav. Previously titled Dilli, Tandav will be streamed on Amazon Prime Video from January 15.
Zafar’s previous credits include the movies Gunday, Tiger Zinda Hai and Bharat. Tandav, a drama about a power struggle in a fictional political party, takes Zafar into uncharted waters. The sprawling cast includes Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Sunil Grover, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Kritika Kamra, Sarah Jane Dias, Dino Morea, Kumud Mishra, Anuup Soni and Sandhya Mridul. Excerpts from an interview.
‘Tandav’ is distinctly different from your previous productions. Why the interest in Indian politics?
There’s always some politics in my films, not the popular politics but emotional or social politics; systems creating their own victims. I have always been very sensitive to what happens around me. I studied at an ICSE school, and Shakespeare was a part of the syllabus since the seventh grade. I always wanted to do a drama set in the centre of the country with a Shakespearean text.
The beauty of politics – which is one of its rare virtues – is that it’s timeless. Anyone in absolute power will be corrupted absolutely. That’s what the show is all about. It’s happened before...
