New Delhi: Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali has said he was once abducted from his Delhi University hostel after a dispute over a political poster during his Hindu College days.
Speaking to NDTV while promoting his upcoming film Main Vaapas Aaunga, Ali said the 1993 incident took place at a time when student politics was an inseparable part of campus life in Delhi.
“When you live in Delhi, you become aggressive. I used to be very aggressive during my college days in Delhi. But it was not my fault at that time,” he said.
Ali added that the dispute began after a political poster was pasted on the front wall of his hostel. He told the students to use the side walls instead because the front wall was the face of the building.
When the poster appeared on the front wall again, Ali removed it and pasted it to the side.
A few days later, around 2 am, a hostel mate warned him that the men were coming. “They arrived and said, ‘Come with us.’ I asked where, but they had come in a cycle rickshaw to take me away,” Ali recalled.
Ali said he was taken to a ‘government quarter-type’ place in the university area and questioned by the leader of the group. He told him he had not torn the poster, only moved it because it spoiled the look of the building.
The misunderstanding then turned in the would-be director’s favour. The leader, Ali had said during a different interview with Samdish Bhatia, slapped his associate twice for giving him the wrong version. “That’s how I got away,” Ali said.
Ali in Delhi
Looking back at the incident, Ali told NDTV that it could have gone badly, but did not. “Whatever happened to me, it turned out to be a beautiful incident. I made a lot of friends because of that incident, which could have been horrific,” he said.
Ali has spoken in recent interviews about Delhi as a city that shaped both his temperament and his storytelling. The filmmaker studied at Hindu College before moving into theatre, television, and films.
Main Vaapas Aaunga, starring Diljit Dosanjh, Naseeruddin Shah, Vedang Raina, and Sharvari, is scheduled to release in theatres on 12 June.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
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