Ali Fazal opens up on 'slipping into depression' when he started '3 Idiots', recalls feeling 'crushed'

New Delhi: Bollywood actor Ali Fazal, who played the role of the student that committed suicide in '3 Idiots' opened up on the mental stress he faced while shooting for the film as he felt deeply connected to the role. In addition, after he played the role, news channels started interviewing him about real-life incidents of student suicides and asked him about his feelings and thoughts on it. This 'crushed' him, he said in an interview with an entertainment portal.

He told Peeping Moon, "I slipped into depression when I started with ‘3 Idiots’. I played a small role in it. Do you know what happened? Suddenly they were doing some news pieces, not to sound morbid or anything but at that time, some college students had harmed themselves, and then I got a call from some news channel saying, ‘Sir, you’ve played this role and this is exactly what has happened. How do you feel about it?’ and I was crushed at that point. I was naive, I was in my second year of college. I went into depression and I told Raju sir (Rajkumar Hirani) and all these people and they said, ‘please don’t do this. Tell them to talk to the producer and don’t feel like this'."

He further said that the cast and crew of the film were very understanding and sweet about it. 

"Obviously, they were very sweet about it and I used to suddenly start associating that I couldn’t explain much in a small role. I wish and hope I get a big role so that then I can take them through the whole journey and tell you no, this is not what I meant to do. I didn’t mean to hurt anybody. Of course, it was coming from a very naive place," he added.

He is popularly known for his roles in the Netflix film 'House Arrest' and the Amazon Prime series 'Mirzapur'. Fazal will next be seen in 'Fukrey 3', 'Ray', 'Happy Now Bhaag Jayegi' and 'Death On The Nile'.