Ali Fazal reveals he became Depressed after ‘3 Idiots’

Ali Fazal has revealed that he became depressed following the 2009 release of 3 Idiots.

The actor had a small role in Rajkumar Hirani’s superhit.

Ali played Joy Lobo, a student with a passion for machines. In the film, Dr Viru ‘Virus’ Sahastrabuddhe (Boman Irani) tells him he will not graduate.

Joy then tragically takes his own life.

Ali has now revealed that after the film’s release, he became depressed as Joy’s character arc mirrored real-life tragedies.

Media outlets had approached the actor to comment on teenage suicides in India because of education pressure.

Ali admitted he was shocked when he was asked to comment on such issues in real life.

In an interview with Peeping Moon, Ali explained:

“I slipped into depression when I started with 3 Idiots. I played a small role in it.

“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?’ and 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 Fazal went on to say:

“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.”

3 Idiots is based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel Five Point Someone.

It starred Aamir Khan, Madhavan and Sharman Joshi in the lead roles. It also starred Boman Irani and Kareena Kapoor.

Meanwhile, Ali Fazal will next be seen in the web series Ray.

It is an anthology on renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s work.

The show will present four tales of love, lust, betrayal and truth.

Ali appears in the episode ‘Forget Me Not’ alongside Shweta Basu Prasad and Anindita Bose.