Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali recently opened up about a shocking incident from his college days, sharing that he was once abducted by a local gang. He revealed he was kidnapped from his hostel in the middle of the night. The filmmaker shared how a dispute over a political poster escalated into a frightening ordeal. He also revealed how he eventually escape unharmed.
Imitiaz Ali recalls being kidnapped during college days
Imtiaz, who graduated from Hindu College in 1993, shared the ordeal. During a conversation on Unfiltered with Samdish, the filmmaker revisited the incident from his college days, how a seemingly minor disagreement on campus escalated into a late-night abduction.
He said, “At that time, there was the usual NSUI versus ABVP rivalry in universities. Someone had put up a poster on the wall of my hostel. I told them not to put it on the front face of the hostel and instead use the side walls. They deliberately pasted it on the front wall. In front of them, I removed it and put it up on the side. They left. A few days later, around 2 am, one of my hostel mates came and told me to run because those people were coming. They arrived and said, ‘Come with us.’ I asked where, but they had come in a cycle rickshaw to take me away.”
He further revealed that the group forced him into a cycle rickshaw and took him to a government-quarters-type place.
Imtiaz Ali on how he escaped
According to the filmmaker, a gang leader associated with a political organisation questioned him about the incident. The filmmaker explained to him that he had not torn the poster, but had merely removed it from the front wall of the hostel and placed it elsewhere because it spoiled the appearance of the building.
Recalling how he escaped, Imtiaz said, “The gang leader then asked one of his men whether I had torn the poster. He replied, ‘It’s the same thing. Whether he removed it or tore it, it’s the same.’ The gang leader got angry and said, ‘You told me he had torn the poster, and now you’re saying he only removed it?` They got into an argument, and the gang leader slapped his own man twice for lying to him. That’s how I got away.”
Imtiaz is currently gearing up for the release of his upcoming film, Main Vaapas Aaunga, starring Diljit Dosanjh, Vedang Raina, Sharvari and Naseeruddin Shah in lead roles. The film is scheduled to release in theatres on June 12.