Imtiaz Ali recalled the men did not use a car or any large vehicle to kidnap him. Instead, they forced him into a cycle rickshaw.
Published: June 7, 2026, 3:30 PM IST
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Renowned filmmaker Imtiaz Ali is known for telling heartwarming stories on screen, but his own life has been no less dramatic. While studying at Hindu College, Delhi University, he reportedly had a run-in with a local political gang, which led to a shocking incident in which he was allegedly kidnapped from his college hostel in a cycle rickshaw. The incident took place around 1993, when Imtiaz Ali was a student at Delhi University. At the time, campus politics was marked by intense rivalry between student groups such as the NSUI and ABVP. In an interview with Unfiltered by Samdish, Imtiaz recalled that the episode began over something as simple as a political poster pasted on the wall of his college hostel.
Imtiaz Ali 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.”
Imtiaz thought the matter was over, but the real drama was yet to begin. A few days after the incident, at around 2 a.m., he was asleep in his hostel room when one of his roommates rushed in and warned him that some goons were looking for him and that he should leave immediately. Before Imtiaz could make sense of the situation, the men stormed into his room and, in a threatening tone, told him, “Come with us.”
Surprisingly, the men did not use a car or any large vehicle to abduct Imtiaz. Instead, they forced him into a cycle rickshaw and took him to what appeared to be a government quarter near the university campus. There, Imtiaz came face-to-face with the group’s leader, who was reportedly associated with a political organisation.
Recalling how he finally 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 Ali has often said that his time at Delhi University taught him many valuable life lessons, both good and bad, which helped shape his creative thinking. Today, however, the filmmaker is focused on his work rather than nostalgia. He is currently preparing for the release of his next film, “Main Wapas Aaunga,” starring Diljit Dosanjh and Naseeruddin Shah. The film is scheduled to hit theatres on June 12.
