Riz Ahmed on “Mogul Mowgli”

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2021

⏱️ 20 minutes

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Summary

As a rapper, Riz Ahmed has released critically acclaimed albums, and he was featured on the chart-topping “Hamilton Mixtape.” At the same time, he was becoming a leading man in the movies, with roles including a small part in the Star Wars picture “Rogue One” and an extraordinary, Oscar-nominated performance in “Sound of Metal.” Like his previous film, “Mogul Mowgli” is about a musical artist facing a health crisis that could end his career. Ahmed stars as the British-Pakistani rapper Zaheer—stage name Zed—and he co-wrote the film with Bassam Tariq. “It was very much a kind of inward journey,” Ahmed tells David Remnick. “It was very much about holding up a mirror and hoping that in the honesty and the vulnerability of that exercise, people would just connect emotionally—even if they couldn’t necessarily connect to the specificity of the experience. But for those who could connect to that specificity, you would be, like, ‘Jesus Christ, I never thought I’d see that onscreen!’ ”

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:10.5	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:14.0	As a rapper, Riz Ahmed has released a number of critically acclaimed albums, and he was featured on the Hamilton mixtape, which topped the Billboard 200. Immigrants, we get the job done. A.O.A. immigrants, we don't like that. Nah, they don't play. British Empire strikes back. They're beating us like 808s and highhats are a wrong game of invasion. This ain't Iraq. Who these Fugees? What do they do for me but contribute new. At the same time, Ahmed has built a remarkable career as an actor.
0:42.3	This year he was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as a heavy metal drummer losing
0:46.7	his hearing in the film The Sound of Metal.
0:49.9	And now comes a new film, Mogul Mogli.
0:52.4	Ahmed plays a rapper named Zahir, or Zed for short.
0:55.7	And like the sound of metal, it's about a musical artist
0:58.9	who's facing a crisis that could end his career.
1:04.4	Don't make me smash your melon up.
1:07.9	Try throwing a shade of melanin.
1:12.6	Bonafido, I'm seven up. You're too sweet. I put the lemon in.
1:16.6	They put their boots on our ground.
1:19.6	I'll put my roots in their ground.
1:21.6	I put my truth in it sound.
1:23.6	I spit my truth in it's brown.
1:26.6	I don't give a fuck about the cash you stack with the crown on your skull.
1:29.4	You ain't baski out with the prince of Denmark. As Eddie boy piss on their benchmarks to white kids want to be packs. Brown planning is going to be that. The man frown panic. I want to me out, but I'm out. Sturning because I stand out. And where I was standing is going to be twice.
1:50.9	Riz Ahmed wrote Mughal Mowgli with director Basam Tarek, and it's his first feature as a screenwriter.
1:53.1	This movie is extremely emotional, extremely personal, and an extraordinary, an extraordinary
2:00.7	performance, and I wonder what the origins of it are for you.
2:06.2	Oh, thank you, first of all. I'm so glad you connected with it. You know, it's weird in a way because
	...

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