‘Come with us’: Imtiaz Ali recalls being abducted from his college hostel in a cycle rickshaw

Long before Imtiaz Ali became one of Hindi cinema's most celebrated voices, he was a young student finding his footing at Hindu College, part of the University of Delhi. Those years, which culminated in his graduation in 1993, left a lasting imprint on him, teaching him what it meant to be independent and feeding the creative hunger that would later define his films. He has spoken about that era with genuine warmth on numerous occasions. Yet recently, the director exposed a darker layer of those memories, recounting a harrowing experience that once shook him to the core, the day he was snatched away by a local political gang, all because of a dispute that had erupted over a poster.In a candid conversation with Unfiltered by Samdish, Imtiaz revisited a startling episode from his college days, one that began with something as trivial as a poster. The filmmaker painted a vivid picture of how charged the atmosphere on campus was back then, with rival student political factions frequently locking horns. What seemed like a minor disagreement over the placement of a poster on his hostel wall quickly snowballed into something far more dangerous. In his own words: "In Delhi, I was once abducted from my hostel by a local gang. 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."But the matter was not over, even though Imtiaz thought it was. Things took a scary turn a few days later. "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. They made me sit and took me to a government quarter-type place in the university area." When he got there, he was taken straight to the man who was running the group. Imtiaz came face to face with the gang leader and explained what had actually happened. "There was a gang leader there who was associated with a political party. He asked me what had happened. I told him I had not torn the poster. I had asked them not to put it there, and when they still did, I simply removed it and placed it elsewhere because it spoiled the look of the building."What Imtiaz did not expect was that the truth would come out so quickly and in such a dramatic fashion. The gang leader turned to one of his own men and demanded to know exactly what had happened. "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?'". The crack in the story was now out in the open. What had begun as a lie told by one of the gang's own members now blew up right in front of everyone. "They got into an argument, and the gang leader slapped his own man twice for lying to him. That's how I got away."Years later, when Imtiaz returned to his alma mater in 2017, he took a moment to look back at everything those college walls had given him, the good, the bad, and everything in between. He did not shy away from admitting that not all of it was something to be proud of. "DU taught me a lot and I had good, bad, ugly, romantic, and all kinds of time here. [I did] illegal and shameful things as well, some of which I admitted in front of the principal (Anju Srivastava) today. Many, I will not [talk about] because this is a very strong government," he had said.On the professional front, Imtiaz Ali is gearing up for his next directorial project, ‘Main Vaapas Aaunga’. The film boasts an impressive ensemble cast, bringing together Diljit Dosanjh, Naseeruddin Shah, Vedang Raina and Sharvari in pivotal roles. It is set to hit the screens on June 12.