Actor Ali Fazal shared in an interview that he went through a tough time after his role in the 2009 film 3 Idiots. Fazal explained that he was deeply affected when a member of the media questioned him about his character’s story, which seemed to mirror a real-life tragic event.
Ali Fazal, known for his portrayal of Joy Lobo in Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots, expressed, “I slipped into depression when I started with 3 Idiots. I played a small role in it.” He elaborated, “Do you know what happened? Suddenly they were doing some news pieces, not to sound morbid or anything, but at that time, some college students had harmed themselves, and then I got a call from some news channel saying, ‘Sir, you’ve played this role and this is exactly what has happened. How do you feel about it?’”
He added, “I was crushed at that point. I was naive. I was in my second year of college. I went into depression and I told Raju Sir (Rajkumar Hirani) and all these people, and they said, ‘please don’t do this. Tell them to talk to the producer and don’t feel like this’.”
Ali continued, “Obviously, they were very sweet about it and I used to suddenly start associating that I couldn’t explain much in a small role. I wish and hope I get a big role so that then I can take them through the whole journey and tell you no, this is not what I meant to do. I didn’t mean to hurt anybody. Of course, it was coming from a very naive place.”
In a recent interview with YouTuber Raj Shamani for his podcast, Ali Fazal shared the story of how he landed his debut role in the 2009 film. He recalled, “I was doing a play in Bombay when I received a call from Raju Sir’s office for an audition. I went in, read the part, and he watched it. I vaguely recall that he had seen one of my plays before and may have called me based on that.”
Ali also remembered that after the audition, he quietly recorded the song “Give Me Some Sunshine”. While commuting by train, he listened to the recording and, within a couple of days, Rajkumar Hirani confirmed him for the role.
3 Idiots also features Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi, R Madhavan, and Kareena Kapoor in key roles.