Known for his roles in Cheeni Kum, Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3, Madrasapattinam, Doctor Rakhmabai and Roohi, the recent feather in Alexx O’Nell’s cap has been Vishal Bhardwaj’s Netflix film Khufiya. Alexx takes us through his recent acting journey in Indian films, and the experience of working with Bhardwaj and his co-stars.
How did Khufiya happen?
Alexx O’Nell: ‘Bagging roles’ for me usually results from being recommended by someone I have worked with in the past. In this case, I believe the casting director, Gautam Kishanchandani, had seen some of my earlier work and reached out to my manager. After discussing the project, I shot a couple of videos demonstrating how I would perform the role. A few weeks later, while I was on a paragliding adventure outside of Cape Town, I received a message from my manager that Vishal Bhardwaj wanted me in his film.
I know it’s not a very dramatic journey, but it is one that has served me well for the past 10 years or so. I am fortunate that I’ve done enough work for filmmakers to know me. Unfortunately, that recognition goes both ways — they may have seen me in something and as a result made up their mind about what I can or cannot do. For me, it’s very important to keep doing things that people haven’t seen me do, so I rely as much on filmmakers’ imagination as I do on their recognition.
What was your preparation process like?
Alexx O’Nell: To begin, Vishalji’s (Bhardwaj) take on the spy thriller presents undercover agents in a realistic way. Each of them has a believable cover, including a family and a profession, and my character, Dr David White, is no exception. In addition to seeing him engage in covert activities, we meet his family, see him socialising and witness him working as a child psychiatrist.
It is in his capacity as a therapist that it makes sense that Dr White would meet frequently with Ravi (Ali Fazal) and his son Kunal, and having a degree in psychology (as well as philosophy) certainly made me well suited to play the role. Beyond this, I have extensive experience living in the US and a ‘real’ American accent. But in order to portray Dr White properly, I did find it necessary to do some additional research into the therapies and treatments that child psychiatrists use. In fact, we shot some interesting interactions between Kunal and Dr White using ‘play therapy’, although, unfortunately, most of it didn’t make it into the final edit. Still, I believe it’s important to have done the background work to make the scenes the audience sees as authentic as possible.
You have worked with Tabu in other projects as well. How was it reuniting with her?
Alexx O’Nell: Because we didn’t share any scenes in Cheeni Kum or Urumi, we didn’t interact much in either of those films. Nevertheless, we did meet, and despite it being a long time ago, I distinctly remember watching her and Amitabhji (Bachchan) perform some of the scenes that took place in the Indian restaurant in London in Cheeni Kum. She was, and still is, a captivating actress and I was touched that she was kind enough to remember me, or at least to pretend to.
In Khufiya, the climax brings KM (Tabu) and Dr White face to face, and it was truly my privilege to work with Tabu and Vishalji not only in executing this intense scene but also in developing it. I brought my ideas as did Tabu and Vishalji, and the three of us worked together in a beautifully collaborative way to make the scene one of the most thrilling in the film.
How has it been working with your other co-stars Wamiqa Gabbi and Ali Fazal?
Alexx O’Nell: Sadly, though Wamiqa and I appear in several scenes together in Khufiya, we barely interact. I only realised what an amazing job she had done when I saw the final edit. Hopefully, there will be an opportunity for us to collaborate on something in the future. Ali and I have a few really lovely scenes in the film, and I sincerely enjoyed every moment of working with him. He’s not only a wonderful scene partner but also a great guy. Most recently, I saw him on the occasion of Richa Chadha getting knighted by the French Consul in Mumbai a few days ago. It’s always great to see Ali and Richa, and I am so happy for everything that’s going well in their lives, both personally and professionally.
Khufiya was partially shot in a small Canadian town. Can you share any anecdotes from the shoot?
Alexx O’Nell: The town we shot in, Drumheller, is an ‘interesting’ place. Due to the prevalence of dinosaur bone discoveries in the area, they have an impressive archaeological museum that even contains the largest intact T-Rex skeleton ever found. But that’s it. In fact, the town’s obsession with dinosaurs means that there are dinosaur sculptures literally everywhere! Besides the dinosaurs, I was delighted to find that my hotel not only had an indoor pool and Jacuzzi but also a water slide. A water slide! I went every day.
You recently shot for Soukarya Ghoshal’s Pokkhirajer Dim. What is your character all about?
Alexx O’Nell: It’s too early to reveal much about Pokkhirajer Dim. In fact, the film isn’t complete yet. What I can say is that it’s a unique fantasy genre film that children will love. Soukarya has such a specific vision for Pokkhirajer Dim that it took me some time to understand exactly what he was going for. But when I did, I loved it! The film features me in a look and role completely different from anything you’ve seen before, and it feels great to have a new Bengali project in the works after having had such a lovely experience with my last film, Golondaaj. Just a few days ago, I met Dev and we gave each other a hug in celebration of the two-year anniversary of our film… how time flies!
What’s next?
Alexx O’Nell: After spending two weeks in Leh, Ladakh, shooting for Lucifer 2: Empuraan with Prithviraj and Mohanlal, I just arrived in Cape Town to put the finishing touches on my next song and music video, Pride.
Alongside the music, I’ll be making some time for motorcycling and paragliding adventures here in South Africa before heading back to Mumbai in early December to finish shooting a couple of projects, including the one I’m working on with Akshay Kumar.
At the moment, I have about a dozen films and series in various stages of completion, and I’m really excited that many of the things I’ve been working on over the past couple of years are finally getting ready for release. Some of the most exciting ones are Dharmatic’s feature Ae Watan Mere Watan in which I star alongside Sara Ali Khan, and the Amazon Original Series Bak Bak with Divya Dutta, to name just a couple. Both as a musician and as an actor, I am truly excited about everything that is releasing in 2024.
