Feroze Khan, Dua Lipa appreciated Riz Ahmed's initiative

Celebrities are appreciating British-Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed due to his initiative for improving Muslim representation in Hollywood movies.

“Prepared yourself to be called Tablighi and whatnot,” stated Feroze Khan. “But keep going, bro, proud.”  

Riz announced $25,000 fellowships for Muslim filmmakers last week and stated that Muslims are either disappeared from Hollywood movies or working as ‘villains’. Riz has cooperated with three organizations Pillars Fund (a Muslim community foundation), USC Annenberg (school of communication), and Ford Foundation (American private foundation with the mission of advancing human welfare). 

“So proud of you, Riz, for disclosing how Muslims are missing and overused in top films,” stated British singer Dua Lipa. “Now the time has come for the film industry’s revolution.”

According to the study, only 1.65% of the total of 8,965 speaking characters were played by Muslims between the years 2017 and 2019. While, Muslim women have even worst representation, with the ratio of male characters to the female being 175 to 1.

Out of 200 films, 181 did not have Muslim characters at all.

A negative and violent image of Muslims has been obvious in Hollywood. Almost one-third of Muslim characters are either violent or over half are victims of violence. One Muslim character only was having a disability.

Riz Ahmed is the first Muslim actor who won a lead actor Oscar nomination due to his outclass performance in ‘Sound of Metal’.

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The actor has recently launched a multidimensional initiative for Muslim representation in media, in partnership with Ford Foundation, USC Annenberg, and Pillars Fund.