“In the west, good roles for South Asian actors are few and far.”

Ali Kazmi talks about his voice performance in Angelina Jolie’s upcoming animated film Breadwinner, working in the west and the need for
animated projects in Pakistan.

Ali Kazmi may not have won the Best Supporting Actor trophy at the Lux Style Awards this year for his performance in Mehreen Jabbar’s Dobara Phir Se but the son of industry veterans Rahat Kazmi and Sahira Kazmi is looking ahead and has some interesting projects coming up.

Among them is the Qandeel Baloch TV biopic Baaghi in which Kazmi will star alongside Hindi Medium star Saba Qamar. He has a slew of films brewing on the local turf and has one international project in the pipeline as well that merits some discussion.

Kazmi is one of the voice actors in Angelina Jolie’s upcoming animated feature film Breadwinner. Based on Debra Ellis’ bestselling novel of the same name, the film tells the story of a girl and the trials and troubles she faces through her journey as she disguises herself as a guy to earn a living for her family.

“I play a pivotal character called ‘Darya’ who has an important purpose to her journey,” Kazmi told Instep in an exclusive interview. “Breadwinner is about a little girl who has big shoes to fill. I am also doing various other smaller voice roles in the film. I was enjoying myself way too much in the audio booth so the director Nora gave me more to do.”

So what is it that Kazmi looks for when offered a role?

“The biggest question I ask myself is whether there is a story to tell or not. And in this case there is a lovely story and the team is superb, brainy and extremely talented! So it was a no brainer to say yes!”

Breadwinner revolves around the themes of women rights and gender discrimination, issues that are relevant to Qandeel Baloch biopic as well in which Kazmi plays a prominent role. We asked if he finds the two projects relatable in any way.

“Strangely, yes!” the actor responded. “There are a lot of similarities between the two projects – the ‘girl power’, the issue of women’s rights (that’s plaguing many countries around the world), abuse, child education and female education issues (in third world countries), religious fundamentalism, expelling archaic customs and misconstrued rituals and cultural thought processes – all these are integral to both the stories. However, it was completely unintentional and far apart in my head when I chose to do them. I liked both of them for these reasons and for their own special aspects.”

Is it a deliberate effort to sign such projects?

“In the west, good roles for South Asian actors are few and far between,” he observed. “I have worked hard to try and choose and not let the monetary aspect disrupt the integrity of the art; that can be rough folks! The parts and mindsets are getting better slowly and steadily so we audition for everything but seldom do projects come along where one can just jump on and say yes. But this (Breadwinner) I can say with gratitude was one of those stories I wanted to be a part of. As for work back home in Pakistan, I have worked for many years there and I’m finally in a position to pick and choose the projects I want to be a part of. My upcoming projects are hopefully going to entertain the audience and make them think. I feel that along with doing work that can hook and interest people, there should be some form of education and learning along the journey of the project.”

Coming back to his upcoming animated film, Kazmi noted that he loves comics and animated projects. Having worked on three video games and now Breadwinner, he feels that it is a very complex genre and making it a success in the East and in Pakistan is a big task. He said, “We (the mass audience) are not geared to take animation seriously as an art form. We consider it as just for kids. Though it’s great to see some development in the genre and filmmakers like Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy striving to make it better, we still have a long way to go. The more we try to create and learn new techniques the more we shall strive ahead. We must pick interesting stories that would interest not only kids but adults alike. I feel we lack in that department.”

Elaborating on the process of how animated films are made, Kazmi shared, “There are different ways to create an animated film depending on the budget, type of animation and genre (serious, funny, indie or commercial). Much like any live action feature film, the magic of animation is that it truly pushes your skills as an actor because you have to imagine this entire world standing inside an audio booth, dressed in your running shorts. Breadwinner is an indie flick in which we were shown our characters and given a brief description as to what they are like. And we have to create a back story and the history of the character. On recording day we are given the situation for each scene. The director Nora Twomey was guiding us beautifully and impeccably through each scene, painting a vivid picture of where we were in at the moment in terms of the story arc. Animation templates are also made and final animation is done after the voice work. Video games on the other hand work differently. The creative process is the same but you’re in a green/blue room instead wearing a unitard (a spandex suit) with sensors all over. There’s a go pro camera attached to your head and a wireless mic and you run around the studio. Here you actually do the action aside from the voice work. It’s quite hilarious if you’re watching someone running around like a crazy person reacting to a tennis ball on a stick that’s supposed to be a dinosaur (laughs) but it’s a very difficult task if you’re the one doing it. You’re being motion captured into the animation and they are tracking your movements and basing the animated figure on you, followed by the background and other visuals effects.”

So what does he think of such cultural collaborations? Do they help create a soft image of Pakistan?

“I believe that art knows no boundaries and brings people together,” he said. “The more we work globally, the more we get a softer and more approachable image. It really makes people realize that we are a nation of capable, intelligent people and have nothing to do with fundamentalism or extremist views. We just want to explore and show the world our talent. So yes to more Pakistanis working worldwide and making us a proud nation!”

Towards the end of the interview, Kazmi informed that he’ll be seen in two upcoming TV plays after Eid. Aside from Baaghi, he will be playing the protagonist in Mohsin Talat’s Tum Meri Mohabat Ho. Currently he’s auditioning in Toronto and in talks for some projects there.