At the end of season two, Pakistani drug baron Asif Afridi went back to Lahore, seemingly defeated, but you can’t keep this powerful Investor down for long when it comes to making a power play.

Above everything, Asif is a man with a plan – and if you don’t play by his rules, that could become deadly. Cocky and brash but cool under pressure, Asif knows he’s someone to be equally revered and feared. But in a world where everyone is your enemy, does he have alliances in the right places?

Speaking ahead of season three, actor Asif Raza Mir talks about the character’s growth, what he has planned for the Wallaces, and how he keeps a cool head even in the midst of chaos.

Now we’re back for another series of Gangs of London. How does it feel?

Oh, it feels great. You can imagine, we’ve been at it since 2018, and it’s great to be back with the whole team and the whole cast. It’s really exciting.

This is also bittersweet, this series, isn’t it?

It is indeed. And but, hey, that’s what this business is. You know, every time you come on the set, there is something interesting coming up, and this time, exciting for me in many ways. So, looking forward to it, how the public responds to it.

I think season three very much carries on what season one and two is. It’s edgy, it’s full of surprises, yet there are emotions connected to people and new stories. Then there are interesting parts with my character. I go back to my hometown, introducing a new city to the rest of the world.

Asif’s character at the end of season two, he’s lost everything. He had to leave the country, but he’s one of those people who never takes defeat lying down. He will just prepare himself, realign. He has friends in the business, and that’s what people will find out, how he comes back. His dream is to come back to London and take control of the drug business. If you remember my line in season one, that ‘if they do that to me, I would wipe out their whole bloodline’, that’s the thought process he has, he wants to come back and do the same. But this time he has new alignments, he has new friends and some old friends, those are the surprises you will see in the new season. That’s what makes it even more exciting.

The characters of Luan and Lale, and how they’ve developed the surprise that comes to people and we sort of left at a cliffhanger in the last couple of scenes of season two, where she’s alive and we are together. I’m sure people will be looking forward to what’s going to happen next. I think season three is a full package, and I’m sure the audience will not be disappointed, as a matter of fact, they’ll be asking for more.

It started happening after season two. As a matter of fact, now in season three, I think, people are getting used to those characters. They take your name as the character. It’s funny enough that my name is what the character’s name is.

The surprising thing is, it is the young audience, they would stop you and enquire. It’s exciting. Now the show has expanded and moved on to other channels also, that in itself is going to bring in more audience. I think it’s great to be seen by a larger audience.

Let’s talk Asif and Lale, because by the end of season two, you expect him to kill her as revenge, but he makes the decision to use her to his advantage.

Yeah, that’s exactly what this whole series is. Gangs of London is all about alignments, all about politics, all about people getting together, being against them, trying to kill each other. Yet they could realign and start working as partners again. Asif and Lale are that pair that hate each other’s guts. He’s done what he has done to her husband. She has done what she has done to his son. Yet they’re together. They are together for a purpose, and doing things which you would not expect two enemies to be doing. But I think how this has developed – as a team, as two characters – has added a new dimension to the series.

He is indeed. He would not get emotional. Never touches a gun. He does not get worried in situations, even if they go against him. He keeps an eye on the things and the events that are going to come in the future rather than just what is happening now. And that is what made this character so interesting. For me to play this character, I think that was the big challenge, and I enjoyed every moment.

There is the villain part of this character, the emotional part of this character, and then there is the strategist, who looks at things not just the way they are in front of him. He does not talk too much, but his actions speak for him.

I think he’s always believed he’s the master and he needs to be there. London is his passion, London is his city, and he’s worked so hard to be on top of the game. He has made new alliances and he wants to be in control, which I’m sure he will be.

Part of episode five takes place in Asif’s mansion in Lahore, which was actually a set built in West London. How did it feel walking onto that set?

Oh, that was something! That was really something. It was funny, we were doing a reading and I was in the city of Lahore and they were talking about the city of Lahore. So, the first read we had on a zoom, I was doing it from the house. Then they said they are going to recreate Lahore, and Hugh, our executive producer, asked me one day, ‘I would like you to go up and visit the set and see what you think of it.’ When I stepped on the set it was a surprise. It was elaborate. It was fantastic. I told them ‘The amount of money you put on the set, you could have come to Lahore!’ It would have been cheaper to do it over there.

But honestly, it was a great effort done by everybody and the details and the plants and the light mist that sometimes you have over there. The architecture, the floors, the wall hangings… the eye to detail was fantastic.

Dramatic. Surprises. Intense.