Anil George, best known for playing Lala in Mirzapur, talks about the fan attention that comes his way through the role
When Mirzapur was released back in 2018, the popular crime drama introduced several new characters, both big and small. Many of these managed to enamour the audiences and became fan favourites. And while the likes of Guddu Pandit, Munna Bhaiya, and Kaleen Bhaiya were all the rage, many smaller characters also made their mark. One such was Lala, a drugs smuggler played by Anil George. For George, the role was one of many supporting characters he has played in films and TV over a decade. But it became his most popular one, courtesy one line that became a meme.
In one of the episodes in Mirzapur season one when Lala first meets Munna (played by Dibyenndu), he nonchalantly chides the young baahubali with the now-popular line ‘Bade haraami ho beta (you are such a rascal, kid)’. The line, and its delivery, became a pop culture reference pretty quickly. George tells us, “You won’t believe but I can’t get out of the house without someone coming up to me and asking me to say that line. People randomly come to my house and shout that line from the road.”
The role and the line gave him several fans too but at times, the fan attention has been unwanted as well. The actor recalls a scary incident when fans landed up at his home unannounced late at night. “There have been times that people even come to my house. I have now instructed my guard to be wary of that. There was an instance when 5-6 boys reached my home at about 10.30 in the night. I wasn’t home at the time and my wife was alone at home. They were most likely drunk and they kept telling my wife, ‘humein Lala se milna hai’. My wife was livid and she told them it wasn’t the right time to visit someone’s house. They kept insisting, saying they had come from very far,” he says.
But George is nonetheless grateful for the fame and love Mirzapur’s Lala has brought his way. “Sometimes when I get work outside India, I meet more fans there, most of whom know me through Mirzapur,” he says. Lala, the character, met his demise in season 3 of Mirzapur, which began streaming on Prime Video earlier this month. The actor was recently seen in Kalki 2898 AD and is expected to appear in the sequel too.
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