Lesser known astounding facts about Imtiaz Ali

Imtiaz Ali was never a rich kid from his childhood. He was keen in knowing the deep routes of everything and had a vision about what he wanted to do. His father was a person who worked in the irrigation background. The director when he was a young child, used to accompany his dad to the fields just to learn the intricate of farming and field necessities. He always used to believe that learning everything about one thing is better than learning a little about everything. The man of perfection was keen on this and so does that reflect on his movies!

Though his parents lived in Patna, Ali always stuck around with his elder brother ‘Arif’ who was also very much interested in movies. They lived with their aunt in Karim mansion, which was a well known mansion in Jamshedpur. The mansion was attached to 3 theatres, two of which were very close to their house. So, this was the starting for both the brothers to sneak out and watch whatever movies were played. The movies in the theatre became Ali’s 2 a.m friend which intensified his love towards cinema and movie making.

You can walk straight up to Mr. Ali and ask him what he wanted to become and he will tell you a zillion answers for that. He has multiple dreams and wishes, which he is trying to make sure to complete even now. He wanted to become a lot of things that he always dreamt of. The director actually studied in Hindu College, University of Delhi, where he started Ibtida, which was the dramatic society in his college. He also was actively a part of the theatre. He wanted to become an author, a management graduate, Civil Engineer, basketball player, copy writer and so much more. He stuck to films, though because he knew his calling was always into movies.

His directorial debut was the movie Socha Na Tha which took him 4 years to complete. The movie didn’t win box off hits, but made a good critically acclaimed one. In the process of shooting the movie, Imtiaz learned a lot about tapes and how they get assembles making a movie. He learned the technical part of movie making and also about editing techniques. He then simultaneously wrote a few other scripts in the process of making Socha Na Tha which later turned into Jab we Met, Highway, Rockstar etc.

Though the director made a huge success of the movie, Jab we Met, the success was not majorly a happy moment for the director. The director once quoted in an interview that the movie lacked importance of anything and he didn’t find it very interesting, but didn’t know why it was a huge hit among people. He quizzed the ability of people’s judgment and his judgment about the movie.

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Imtiaz Ali wrote Highway 20 years back! Yes, this was the very first movie that he had written when he met Alia. Alia Bhatt was only 5 years old back then, so he saved the movie for later. After a few years, he bumped into Alia’s screen test somewhere and decided that this was the right time to take the movie. That immediate moment he knew that he wanted to take out the idea from his mind and show it to the world having Alia in it.

Imtiaz Ali believed in Deepika’s potential and acting style! He wanted to make her the lead in Rockstar too after Love Aaj Kal. Both his movies – Love Aaj Kal and Rockstar was very critically appreciated, but Ali feels that Rockstar still has a missing piece to it and that is the lady lead. He wanted to include Deepika but couldn’t because he didn’t want the same combination to repeat after Love Aaj Kal, so he picked Nargis at the end.

The director is a great artist of creativity and loves exploring. With his new advent – Tamasha, we wish him many more successes and endeavors.

-Pavithra Ravi