Did you know? Ali Fazal didn’t want to be an actor but a player of THIS sport

Ali Fazal on his childhood dream

Ali Fazal has cemented his space as one of the most bankable stars in Bollywood. However, before becoming an actor, he dreamt of pursuing sports, and that too, basketball. In an exclusive chat on mid-day's podcast series The Bombay Film Story, Ali takes a trip down memory lane and shares a fun anecdote from his school days. He reveals how he dreamt of being into sports; however, he lost the opportunity due to injuries.

Ali Fazal on his dream of pursuing basketball

When asked if Ali was the popular kid in school whom everyone would look up to, he answers, "No, I was, in a sense, because Oberoi House was known to have all the rattus. Finally, school academics were rising with our batch. It was a huge batch of 80 people across all houses, and Oberoi was like the studious were getting cred. The padhakus (studious) were, like, suddenly also good in sports - that was unknown. I was like, wait, what's happening, man?"

He added, "So we used to get a bad rep. Suddenly, there were two-three of us who were good in studies but were also playing basketball, soccer, hockey, football and cricket, of course. But hockey and basketball were my sports. So, I was captaining these. And basketball, I captained for almost 3 years. As a junior, that's a big deal because I was captaining seniors. In fact, at that time, the school team had Arkesh Singh Deo, Nischay Mittal, all these guys - they played for India also at the time."

The Mirzapur actor continued, "They went and did hardcore training. But by then, I had broken my arm, so I couldn't move forward in that. I was heartbroken as I really wanted to go hardcore." He added that basketball is not given much credence in India despite being a good sport. "I think it's such a great sport but still not that big in India. I think it should be. It's a fast sport, easy to play, small courts."

Ali Fazal on his boarding school days

When asked what kind of student he was during school days, the actor avers, "I was decent. I was in the cream, but not a topper. Not at all. Because then I started doing all these things."

Recalling fun memories, he shares how there were prom nights during weekends at his school where the guys could sneak into the girls' hostel and enjoy some fun moments.

On the work front, Ali will next be seen in Lahore 1947 with Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta. He also has Rakhtbrahmand with Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Aditya Roy Kapur and Wamiqa Gabbi. And the much-awaited Mirzapur movie is also in the pipeline.