Ali Fazal to star in Bill Guttentag's next 'Afghan Dreamers'

After Death on the Nile and Kandahar, actor Ali Fazal has been roped in for a new Hollywood movie Afghan Dreamers, which is being directed by two-time Oscar-winning director Bill Guttentag for his shorts You Don't Have To Die and Twin Towers.

Just last year it was announced that the actor has been roped in to play one of the leads alongside Gerard Butler in the action-packed film Kandahar, which is set to release in 2023.

Next be seen in Afghan Dreamers, in which the Fukrey actor is set to essay one of the leads in the film based on the inspiring true story of the all-girls robotics team from Afghanistan.

The shoot for Afghan Dreamers recently began in Morocco and will be a 50-day schedule, with majority of the film being shot across Morocco and Budapest.

The film is the true story about the program that was started by Afghan tech entrepreneur, Roya Mahboob in 2017 as a way to help young women develop their skills in the field of science and technology, despite a heavily patriarchal society in the country they hail from.

The film throws light on chaotic, sometimes dangerous backdrop of the country's politics. The story tells the tale of the team of the Afghan girls who travelled across the world and participated in competitions, garnered global media attention and even met leading politicians from across the globe. The role of Roya will be essayed by The Bold Type fame Nikohl Boosheri.

Ali gathered immense appreciation for his role in the Hollywood film Death on the Nile. The film which also starred Gal Gadot, Kenneth Branagh, Armie Hammer, Tom Bateman, Letitia Wright, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Emma Mackey, and Rose Leslie, was released worldwide on February 11, 2022.

Speaking about Afghan Dreamers, Ali said, "Excited and humbled to be sharing notes and being directed by Bill who has an impeccable body of work. Afghan Dreamers is a very important story to be told and I'm happy to be part of its cinematic retelling".

The film is being produced by Laura Overdeck, Samudrika Arora and Bill Guttentag.

• India