Encouraged by the love showered on the second season, the makers of Mirzapur recently announced that the third instalment is in the works. This spells good news for Ali Fazal, who has been headlining the Amazon Prime Video series with Pankaj Tripathi. "All along, we had an inkling [that the story will be taken forward]," says the actor, adding that audience expectation has been rising with every edition. "Now, we have a bigger challenge — to outdo the last two seasons. I will get busy with other projects now, but we plan to shoot soon."

The recent instalment saw Fazal's Guddu team up with Shweta Tripathi Sharma's Golu, to kill Munna Tripathi, thus avenging the murder of his brother. The actor credits writers Puneet and Vineet Krishna for etching a well-rounded character in Guddu, making him valiant and vulnerable at the same time. "The show's writing and characters have been celebrated this time around. When I started playing the character, I knew his arc. For the first few episodes, Guddu is a broken man who has his eyes set on revenge. Over the 20 episodes, he has evolved from a careless young boy to a man with a motive. He has gone through grave emotional loss and turbulence, and yet, he has picked himself up and fought those who have wronged him. His sense of purpose after the family tragedy has struck a chord with the audience."

Such has been the impact of his brooding act that a section of netizens has described him as the web world's angry, young man. "I am asked in interviews if this is the 2020 version of the 'Angry Young Man'. I am humbled because that's quite a heavy term to live up to. Mr [Amitabh] Bachchan's persona is synonymous with the term. While none of us can come close to it, we can be sincere with our performances and give the term a new-age spin."