Ali Fazal

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ali Fazal

• Ali Fazal and his family moved to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, from Delhi soon after his birth. They later spent a brief period in Muscat, Oman, where he attended kindergarten; they relocated to Muscat because his father was posted there.

  

• After kindergarten, he moved back to Lucknow, where he attended La Martiniere College till 7th grade. He then completed the rest of his schooling at The Doon School in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

• Ali grew up in Lucknow at his maternal grandparents’ home with them and his mother. His father lived in the Middle East for work and was rarely around. His parents separated when he was in the 12th grade.

  

• During his school days, Ali actively participated in sports, especially basketball and field hockey. He aspired to represent India in the sport.

• Ali auditioned for the school play ‘The Tempest’ by William Shakespeare after dislocating his arm while playing basketball, which kept him from participating in sports. He was selected for the role of ‘Trinculo’ and even won a prize for his performance. He also performed in many Founder’s Day theatre plays at The Doon School in Dehradun.

• His first salary was Rs. 8,000, which he received while working in a call centre at the age of 19 during his college days in Mumbai. He also did some odd jobs like selling burgers from a well-known brand at a profit.

• Early in his career, Ali Fazal performed in various theatrical productions at the Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai.

• Ali was once noticed by Saeed Akhtar Mirza, a screenwriter and director, during a play after which Mirza cast Ali in the film ‘Ek Tho Chance’ (2009). The film was shown at several film festivals for years before receiving an official release in India.

  

• Ali wanted to study mathematics after college but did not pursue it because filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani approached him for a look test for the film ‘3 Idiots’ (2009). Once he learned that the film featured Aamir Khan, he knew he could not refuse the opportunity; Ali was selected for the role of ‘Joy Lobo’ in the film.
  

• In 2011, Ali played the role of Sameer Khanna (Sam) in the film ‘Always Kabhi Kabhi’ for which he lost 15 kg. In an interview, he mentioned that doing the film was not a good decision, as it received negative reviews from critics and was a box office failure.

  

• Ali has appeared in some short films such as ‘According to Plan A’ (2012), ‘Triyacharitra’ (2017), and ‘Listen to Her’ (2020).

  

• He was highly appreciated by the audience for his performance as ‘Zafar Khan’ in the film ‘Fukrey’ (2013), which was followed by two sequels: ‘Fukrey Returns’ (2017) and ‘Fukrey 3’ (2023).

  

• He initially hesitated to take on ‘Fukrey’ because he did not want to hold a guitar after ‘3 Idiots,’ but producer Ritesh Sidhwani somehow convinced him.

  

• Ali has appeared in many other films including ‘Sonali Cable’ (2014), ‘Khamoshiyan’ (2015), ‘Prassthanam’ (2019), ‘Tadka’ (2022), and ‘Khufiya’ (2023).

  

• In 2015, Ali entered a cold war by claiming that his ‘Khamoshiyan’ co-star Gurmeet Choudhary was primarily cast by the filmmakers due to his fan following. He also claimed that Gurmeet’s popularity came mostly from his role as ‘Lord Ram’ in NDTV Imagine’s series Ramayana.

• He has also worked in some English-language films like ‘Victoria & Abdul’ (2017), ‘Death on the Nile’ (2022), and ‘Kandahar’ (2023).

• His work as ‘Govind Pandit’ (Guddu) in Amazon Prime Video’s web series ‘Mirzapur’ (2018) was highly appreciated by the audience and critics. He reportedly charged Rs 12 lakhs per episode for the series.
  

• He has appeared in many other web series including ZEE5’s ‘Forbidden Love’ (2020) and Netflix’s ‘Ray’ (2021).

  

• In 2024, he voiced the character ‘Song Chi-yul’ in the Hindi-dubbed version of the South Korean series ‘Solo Leveling,’ which streamed on Crunchyroll.

  

• Fazal has a phobia of water and thus cannot swim.

• Ali Fazal believes in contributing to society and has been supporting many charitable organizations. In February 2015, he collaborated with NDTV and Fortis for ‘Health4U Cancerthon’ to increase cancer awareness and raise funds for children battling it.

  

• On 17 June 2020, his mother passed away due to health complications in Lucknow.

 

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• Ali is a fitness enthusiast and often hits the gym.

  

• In January 2022, Ali shared his Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina on Instagram. His post received over 9,00,000 views and numerous comments, with several people expressing their support while some criticised him. A follower commented that acting is haram in Islam to which Ali responded by telling him to stop staring at his phone screen and focus on his own life.

 

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• Ali is an avid animal lover and often posts his pictures with them on social media.

  

• He loves adventures and often engages in activities like desert safari.

  

Ali Fazal (as Abdul Karim), along with Judi Dench (as Queen Victoria), in the film ‘Victoria & Abdul’ (2017)