Not to be mistaken with the Bollywood star of the same name, British actor Akshay Khanna is relatively new to the world of showbiz. Making his feature film debut in Polite Society last year, he’s since starred in Amazon Prime productions such as Chloe, and Red, White & Blue. But Stan’s psychological drama Critical Incident shows Khanna in a different light. As he steps into the role of Senior Constable Zilficar ' Zil' Ahmed – a far cry from the scheming South Asian mummy’s boy in Polite Society – audiences see a man whose world comes crashing down after a work incident goes terribly wrong.
The six-part series filmed in Western Sydney “delves into the complex world of policing and the consequences on those most vulnerable”. As viewers, we quickly see how things unravel for Zil after a bystander is critically injured when he [Zil] pursues a teen suspect, but that suspect turns out to not be the perpetrator.
It’s a heavy character to take on, and Khanna says that swapping comedy – which is “more of my wheelhouse” – for this dramatic role, was a professional challenge he welcomed without question.
“Drama felt like something fresh and exciting, and something that would be a challenge – and it really, really worked,” he tells Draw Your Box.
“The character was having panic attacks and [had] tears in his eyes and everything. It was a lot to go through emotionally. Whereas Polite Society felt like, ‘Oh I'm on set and I'm having a good time’. [In Critical Incident], at the same time as being like, ‘I'm having a wonderful time’, it also felt a more artistically painful experience.”
Akshay Khanna in Critical Incident. Image Source: Stan/Lisa Tomasetti
Besides being a more serious role, Khanna gravitated to the script because of its nuanced approach to telling a story that is indeed specific to Western Sydney suburbs like Blacktown, Granville, Parramatta and Greenacre (where the show was filmed), plus also draws a parallel to the UK where he grew up.
“It [Blacktown] reminded me of areas in London where there's a heavy police presence and maybe a large demographic of minorities and diasporas – a lot of Black people, a lot of Indian people and Pakistanis,” he reflects. “It was very reminiscent of areas in the UK where similar sort of issues are apparent. So I could draw from that.”
Meanwhile, we so often hear and read warranted criticism of police by multicultural communities in particular. In this instance, seeing people of colour like Zil and Sandra (played by Roxie Mohebbi), actually working as police officers, offers a different perspective. We gain an insight into the role that cultural awareness in the police force can play in interacting with CALD communities, but also the potential realities of being a person of colour in the force. In Zil’s case, he’s seen as the “poster boy” of his local police station, but also a face of the multicultural community in the eyes of the police force.
Khanna says this pressure that many people of colour face to represent their communities is very relatable, even in his field as an actor. The stakes are often higher with expectations to speak up for the rest of the brown community, or to do a particularly extraordinary job in an industry that’s still dominated by white people.
“I think there's probably some part of any minority individual who is in a perhaps predominantly white sphere – I'd say acting is probably true of that as well – where you go into it and you feel a little bit as though you are a representative of the race in some capacity,” he explains, adding that it’s often the case even if “nobody's pressuring you or telling or asking you this”.
Image Source: Supplied/Nick Wilson
In episode one, viewers learn that Khanna’s character prefers being called Zil as opposed to Zilficar. It’s yet another scenario that would resonate with viewers who’ve experienced colleagues, friends and other acquaintances struggling to pronounce their ethnic name.
“I know that I'm certainly guilty of just letting people say my name wrong now,” says Khanna.
“I think it actually happened to me this year, because I've been working a lot and I'd met a lot of people. And a lot of people were calling me Ashkay instead of Akshay. After a little while, you just kind of go, ‘I'll just answer to that’. I'm tired of having to correct people. I thought that little touch of ‘Zilficar, but you prefer to be called Zil’ is something that I resonate with quite a bit.”
Along with Khanna, the likes of Naveen Andrews and Dev Patel continue to prove that the representation of Indian British men in Hollywood is growing. It’s exciting to see, and it’s instrumental in helping second-generation brown people feel seen in mainstream TV and film. Khanna says his personal journey of understanding his cultural identity has been a bit more complex. Proud of his Indian roots while growing up in the UK, he recalls regularly visiting India with his parents and receiving questions from locals about where he’s from. It’s during these times he felt a sentiment that’s rather common amongst many children of immigrants: feeling caught between two cultures.
“You kind of feel like, ‘Well, I don't belong here [in India]’, and I don't fully believe as though I belong in the UK,” he reflects. “I think there's this sort of strange thing still, where it’s not easy to know where exactly.
“I've gotten a lot better with it now,” he then adds. “Now I just take up my space wherever I go, and I'm like, ‘This is me, this is who I am’.”
Akshay Khanna and Roxie Mohebbi in Critical Incident. Image Source: Stan/Lisa Tomasetti
While he’s back in the UK as Critical Incident finally premieres, Khanna hopes to visit Australia again soon. In the meantime, he’s certain that the multidimensional depiction of characters and issues will strike a chord with various audiences in different ways.
“Some people will watch it and it and take away perhaps the racial aspect of being put on a pedestal if you're a non-white person in a particular workforce. Some people will take away the fact that the police can be an oppressive force when it comes to youthful people, and actually sometimes they can be pushing people into doing bad things,” he says.
“Some people will take away the mental health issues that can be associated with trauma. I think whatever people take away from it, I just hope that they take away something. Nothing is worse than apathy, like, if you hate it, that's better than feeling nothing about it.
“But I don't think people will. I think they're going to love it!”
The Stan Original Series Critical Incident is streaming now with all episodes at once and only on Stan. Watch the trailer below.