Ali Haji (born 30 October 1999) is an Indian actor who rose to fame in Yoodlee films's Noblemen (2018) directed by Vandana Kataria as Shay Sharma, a struggling adolescent who goes through a life of loss and innocence at his new school. He won the Best Child Actor at the New York Indian Film Festival in Noblemen.^[1]

Before his breakthrough, he had smaller roles in Fanaa portraying Rehan Qadri Jr. as Aamir Khan and Kajol's son,^[2] and Ranveer Singh "Champ" in the 2007 film Ta Ra Rum Pum as Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji's son.^[3]

He has had subsequent supporting roles in Partner (2007), Drona (2008), Right Yaaa Wrong (2010), and Paathshaala (2010), and Super 30 (2019). He also portrayed Suraj Sinha in Line of Descent alongside Brendan Fraser.

As a director, Ali Haji has written and directed his first feature film called Justice For Good Content. He is also a writer on a web series called United Kacche starring Sunil Grover airing on ZEE5, a comedy which is among the most watched shows on Zee 5.

Career

Ali has been a part of over 100 TV commercials and his first film was Family as Amitabh Bachchan's grandson but was uncredited. He has also been a crucial part of the Bollywood feature titled Line of Descent previously known as The Field with Brendan Fraser, Ronit Roy, Neeraj Kabi, and Ali Haji as brothers trying to take over their father's, Prem Chopra business with Haji playing Suraj Sinha, the youngest of the brothers.^[4]

Ali starred in his first main role in the film Noblemen for which he won ‘Best Child Actor’ award at the New York Indian Film Festival.^[1] The film, also featuring Kunal Kapoor was directed by Vandana Kataria and produced by Saregama and Yoodlee Films, in which the film deals with boarding school and bullying issues. In 2019, he had a supporting role in the film, Super 30 starring Hrithik Roshan. Finally, in 2020, amidst the pandemic, Ali Haji rose like a true underdog as he wrote and filmed his first feature film titled Justice For Good Content .The story is a satire on the Indian film industry's long standing insider-outsider debate with the protagonist named Good Content. It maps the journey of a young filmmaker through the rigamarole of various processes, like producers, casting directors and talent agents to mount a film. The film, by design, has an ensemble cast filled with stellar names from the supporting actor prototype such as Suresh Menon, Anu Menon, Vijay Patkar, Rajkumar Kanojia, Max Fernandes, Jaimini Pathak, Delnaaz Irani, Raj Zutshi, Pradeep Kabra, Kritika Avasthi, Dilnaz Irani, Krishna Bisht, Rati Shankar Tripathi, Rajendra Chawla, Prabhjyot Singh, Vanita Kharat and many many more.

Ali additionally owns a theatre production studio known as Clean Slate Studios, under which he has written and directed two plays, Kaaya and in July 2016, a satire on the Indian parenting system, The Mad World of Rustom Irani.^[5]

Filmography

References

External links

• Ali Haji at IMDb