Season 2 of WWII drama “World on Fire” has proved to be one other success for well-liked South Asian-Canadian actor Ahad Raza Mir.
Created by Peter Bowker, Season 1 of the PBC Masterpiece manufacturing premiered on the BBC in 2019 and handled the warfare in Western Europe. In Season 2, the motion shifts to the North African theater of warfare and one of many protagonists is Lieutenant Rajib Pal of the British Indian Army, performed by Mir. The present is a scores smash for the BBC, pulling in additional than 3 million viewers when it debuted earlier this month.
Mir, who was most lately in Netflix’s “Resident Evil,” has a substantial physique of labor in Pakistan and has earned popularity of his performances in “Parwaaz Hay Junoon” (2018), “Aangan” (2018), “Ehd-e-Wafa” (2019) and “Yeh Dil Mera” (2019). Series “Dhoop Ki Deewar,” the place Mir starred alongside Sajal Aly, was a worldwide success for streamer ZEE5. In Canada, Mir has constructed a status as a theater actor, together with enjoying Tybalt in “Romeo and Juliet” (2014) and Lennox in “Macbeth” (2015).
“Peter has created actual characters that really feel actual, and every character will get the significance that they deserve,” Mir tells Variety. “Most of my studying got here from truly being on set, as a result of our set was mainly the desert. And that was a personality by itself, which actually helped feed into the worry and the the motion factor of it. And then the phrases on the web page helped outline the character, it organically got here to life.”
North Africa was recreated in Northern Ireland on a set at a former Michelin manufacturing unit in Ballymena, close to Belfast. “When we acquired the decision, I assumed we’re both gonna shoot in Spain or Abu Dhabi or Africa. And then they instructed me we’re capturing in Belfast, to which I went, ‘That is senseless in any respect. What do you imply, they’re gonna do all of it on set?’” Mir says.
When Mir acquired to the set, he noticed that the manufacturing unit was stuffed with sand. “It wasn’t a small little setting, it was simply so enormous that in the event you dash it, it took you at the least three or 4 minutes simply to succeed in the top,” Mir says. “There was plenty of operating round, and plenty of panic as a result of we handled plenty of explosions. And doing that degree of pyrotechnics and stuff was a primary for me. So I used to be terrified to start with. I didn’t need to act a lot when it got here to the worry and the sweat on my face.”
Bowker instructed Variety that one of many targets of Season 2 was to have a look at the battle from a number of international views, together with that of India. Some 2.5 million South Asians fought as a part of the British Indian Army in WWII. Christopher Nolan was accused in India of ignoring this in his movie “Dunkirk,” whereas Sam Mendes’ “1917” featured a solitary Sikh soldier.
Mir says that typically South Asian characters do get sidelined, however in “World on Fire” it has been “fleshed out correctly.”
“In this collection, they actually did give significance to it and I feel there’s nonetheless extra room for different characters and different individuals to hitch, I’d say, if it goes on to do one other season,” Mir says. “I discovered a lot historical past from doing this present that I truly myself had no concept about. There was the British Indian Army and so they served. I didn’t actually, to be trustworthy, know the main points of how they had been handled, what they went via.”
He provides, “At the identical time, I perceive that there’s movies like ‘Dunkirk’ and ‘1917’ that didn’t actually play to the South Asian roles there — I don’t assume they took that as a chance in any respect. But I feel what ‘World on Fire’ has completed is it has determined, ‘We’re going to inform everybody’s story.’ And that that’s one of many causes I’m so proud to be a part of this present.”
Next for Mir is one other probability to play Hamlet on the Rose Theater in Brampton, Canada in October. In 2019, he starred in “Hamlet: A Ghost Story” for Canada’s The Shakespeare Company, and his interpretation gained him a Betty Mitchell Award for excellent efficiency by an actor.
“I’m a bit nervous for that this time,” he says. “I used to be nervous final time, too, after I did the present. But I’m a bit older now, I don’t know if I’m all that a lot wiser. But nonetheless, I’ve began going over the textual content once more and I simply look ahead to being on stage.”
Mir is represented by Hamid Hussain and Muhammad Yaqoob at Action Consultancy.
