Judi Dench sad she couldn’t come to India, might visit later: Ali Fazal

Veteran Hollywood actor Judi Dench is upset as she could not come to India for the trailer launch of Victoria and Abdul but Ali Fazal, her co-star in the upcoming film, said she might visit the country in near future.

“Victoria and Abdul is a British-American biographical drama film directed by Stephen Frears. Dench plays the role of Queen Victoria who forms an unconventional alliance with an Indian servant, Abdul, played by Fazal. She was a little heartbroken that she couldn’t come to India... I really hope we can make her come. She is really gunning for it, we all are. We also have a busy schedule ahead so we don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few months,” said Ali.

The actor was speaking at the trailer launch of the film, last night. Dench is best know for playing M in several James Bond films apart from her critically acclaimed performances in movies like Shakespeare in Love, Mrs Brown, Notes on a Scandal and Philomena.

Asked what was her perception about Bollywood films, Ali said, “Unfortunately (song and dance). We hate that. I told her, that’s not Bollywood. We are much more than that. But she has been part of ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ film and had shot extensively in Rajasthan. She has been to India, she loves India. We spoke a lot about India, food and of course Bollywood.”

Though Ali is playing an Indian servant in the film, the 30-year-old actor said not putting up an ‘appu accent’ was his first fight. “We have a far better accent than that. That’s not an Indian accent and everybody understood. I was very adamant about certain words that the western culture doesn’t understand. These are the words and names you can’t pronounce any other way. If you have a point, people listen.”

Written by Lee Hall, Victoria and Abdul is based on the book of same name by Shrabani Basu. The film also starring Eddie Izzard, Tim Pigott-Smith and Adeel Akhtar, is scheduled to release on September 22.