Actor Ali Fazal’s first brush with mainstream cinema was with Rajkumar Hirani’s blockbuster film 3 Idiots. The 2009 film, starring Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi, and R. Madhavan in the lead, is one of Bollywood’s biggest hits and has a massive fan base. In the film, Ali had a small yet impactful role—he played an engineering student who takes his own life after the dean fails him for delaying his project submission. So, how did he bag such a pivotal role in 3 Idiots?

Ali Fazal’s 3 Idiots casting story

Speaking on mid-day’s The Bombay Film Story, Ali Fazal said that Rajkumar Hirani had seen him in a play and called him to Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s office for an audition.

“They played the song for me. I recorded it on my phone. Before that, without thinking, I said I knew how to play the guitar when they asked. I said yes to everything but I didn’t actually know anything. Then they asked me to prepare the scene,” he recalls.