Ali Abbas Zafar: “Yash Raj is fully run by outsiders”

Filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar started his career in 2011 as a director with Yash Raj Films’ ‘Mere Brother Ki Dulhan’. He then went on to make films like ‘Gunday’ (2014), ‘Sultan’ (2016), ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ (2017) and ‘Bharat’ (2019). Zafar now reportedly has multiple projects in the pipeline such as the ‘Mr India’ reboot, a superhero film with Katrina Kaif, and a web series called ‘Dilli’ with Saif Ali Khan.

In an interview with Mid-Day, while talking about the insider and outsider debate in the Hindi film industry, Zafar shared that Yash Raj Films (YRF) was completely run by outsiders. “I’ve worked with the best lot of the industry, thanks to Aditya Chopra who’s instrumental in making me who I’m today. I think it’s a creative industry no matter where you come from. If you don’t have that bone in you of originating something from nothing, whether you’re a director, a writer, a cameraman. The famous joke in the industry is that it’s run by people from North and Delhi,” said the filmmaker.

He went on to say that, “This is a joke in YRF too because if you see all the directors, Kabir Khan, Vijay Krishna Acharya, Maneesh Sharma, Habib Faizal, we all have studied there. This whole insider and outsider thing means Yash Raj is fully run by outsiders. This is a joke, at least creatively.”

Zafar’s latest film ‘Khaali Peeli’ has released directly on ZEE Plex and ZEE5.