When fate strikes, it hits the bull’s eye! The saying goes well with this young lad from Peshawar who, to our surprise, got himself to be featured in an amazing Hollywood venture.
Mashood Alam Malik, a youngster from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Peshawar city bagged the lead role in a Hollywood short film which is titled ‘The Cure’.
The story of the movie revolves around a team who attempts to save the world from a dangerous group that is aiming to spread a deadly virus.
Mashood plays the main character, Noah, who can be seen being briefed by his team in the movie trailer, and going on to be chased by gunmen and helicopters. Racing against time, Noah is seen dodging bullets and running away from enemy helicopters to save the world from a group aiming to spread a deadly virus.
Apart from Mashood, The Cure also stars Glen Baggerly and Evangeline Crittenden, as well as Ahmet Atalay, who is the movie’s director.
About Mashood Alam
Born in Peshawar, the 29-year-old actor originally hails from the Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and belongs the Khattak tribe.
Apart from being an actor, he is also pretty accomplished practitioner of parkour freerunning, gymanstic, aerobatics and takewondo.
Alam said he credited his parkour skills with bagging him the lead role in his edbut “The Cure” where he can be seen be taking his these skills to the extreme.
Alam moved to the United States five years ago where he got involved in practicing gymnastics and parkour free-running and is actually a pretty accomplished trainer now. Below you can see is him doing some death-defying stunts all by himself:
When Mashood Alam moved to the United States in 2014 to pursue professional parkour training, he never expected that just five years down the line, he would play a leading role in a Hollywood film.
But clips of the 29-year-old Pakistani-Pashtun free runner caught the eye of a Turkish-American film editor, Ahmad Atalay, who who then approached Alam to cast him in his next short film “The Cure”.
The Cure, a 37-minute-long action film available on YouTube, is Atalay’s first attempt at direction and production. He is also a trailer creator in Hollywood. In the past, he has been involved in several major Hollywood projects, including doing editing work and making the trailers for blockbusters Mission Impossible Fallout and Transformers.
Besides his main role in the short film, Mashood also acted in two other Hollywood movies: as ‘Alex’ in the short film “Fame Banger” and a short cameo in the famous Hollywood movie “Adventures of Aladdin“.
Apart from short films, he also played a role in a TV Series called Wing Girlz where he plays the character of a guy on a date.
In an interview to Arab News at his house in Peshawar, Alam said he had moved to the United States to get a sponsorship for professional parkour anf freerunninh training after being approached by a freerunning academy called Tempest.
“There I had a chance of getting valuable tips from professionals like Parkour world champion Jason Paul, another known athlete DK, and Spiderman movie’s stuntman William Spencer,” Alam said.
In his interview to Arab News, Alam said he felt proud to have gotten the opportunity to bring forward a positive image of Pashtuns and Pakistan to people around the world, particularly to the United States.
“It makes me feel proud when people in the United States tell me they never knew Pakistanis can be so nice. In fact, some asked me how and when should they visit Pakistan,” the Hollywood-newbie said. “I tell them my nation is the most loving one.”
“I am proud of being a Pashtun and a Pakistani and can’t thank Allah the Almighty enough for showering fame and his blessings upon me.”
Alam said he developed an interest in free running and parkour after watching the Discovery Channel program Jump Training in 2003.
A passionate and shining star since childhood
Back in 2005, when the access to the Internet and speed started to improve in Pakistan, Alam began to watch videos of his favorite athletes on YouTube regularly.
“I used to practice with my younger brother and a friend at forgotten, under-construction buildings in Peshawar,” he said. “The security guards would often hush us away from the site as they thought we might end up hurting ourselves.”
His elder brother Asfandyar Alam, a gemstone dealer, said the family always knew Alam would make a name for himself in free running and parkour.
“This Hollywood fame has come out of nowhere,” he said. “We are proud of him for bringing a good name to our people and the country.”
Recalling Alam’s years of training while back home in Peshawar, his brother said: “There was literally no door, no window in our house that he didn’t break while training. Our mother would always worry for him as he once broke his foot, has injured his arms and back many times and even got 15 stitches for a head injury. It was his passion; he wouldn’t stop practicing despite regular scolding by mom.”
Mashood’s Taekwondo instructor, Naveed Habibi, a 5th den black belt master and official team coach of the Pakistan International Taekwondo Federation, said Alam was “one of my best and most talented students.”
“The spark I saw in him back then has become a fire today, making him shine in Hollywood. He has his own genuine style and with his abilities, he will one day stand with the likes of sportsmen-turned-actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone,” Habibi said.
Speaking about his fame in the local community, Alam said people of Peshawar treats him with immense respect and support which he would be forever grateful for. Alam is is already a household name in Peshawar where strangers greets him regularly, offer free meals and make requests for selfies.
“I wish to do something big for them in return,” the actor said. “My biggest aim is to promote parkour in Pakistan. I wish to establish a modern training facility in Pakistan to promote the sport.”
When asked if he had plans to get married, the the shy, six-feet-four-inches tall Pashtun lad blushed and said: “I haven’t thought of that yet. There is no one in my life and I have many goals to achieve before giving this a serious thought.”
In the future, the famed-Pashtun freerunner also hopes to work with well-reputed Pakistani film producers: “However, I will always prefer roles that portray the goodness of Pakistanis and Pashtuns.”
Mashood Alam does have the drive to become an action movie star. At a time when people from Pakistan are being either typecast or not cast at all, his rise towards Hollywood is a good step for Pakistan. Here’s to hoping that this short film leads to him receiving bigger roles in Hollywood.
