Ali Asgar, a name that has made audiences laugh for years, recently opened up about a difficult chapter in his personal and professional life. Known for his comic timing and memorable roles in Comedy Circus, Comedy Nights with Kapil, and The Kapil Sharma Show, Ali spoke candidly about the struggles he faced off-screen. In a conversation with The Lallantop, the actor reflected on a time when his on-screen image affected his family, especially his children.
Ali recalled how his career in Comedy Circus marked the beginning of this phase. It was during this show that he worked with Kapil Sharma for the first time. The show was a hit, judged by Daler Mehendi and Archana Puran Singh, and their team even won the season. While the experience taught him a lot, it also trapped him in a creative loop. Most of his acts involved playing female characters, and gradually it began to weigh on him.
He shared that out of 26 episodes, nearly 18-19 saw him in a female get-up. This repetitive pattern made him unhappy. He explained how other events and award functions started offering him similar roles. There came a point when, four out of seven days a week, he was dressed as a woman for work. While the money was good, the satisfaction was missing.
Ali admitted that it started bothering him so much that he decided to take a step back. “I sat at home for 9 months after that because I was getting the same female characters offered to play,” he shared. He kept turning down offers until something different came along. That break ended when Jeannie Aur Juju was offered to him, and he accepted the project eagerly, hoping for a fresh start.
Things seemed to be moving forward until Kapil Sharma approached him for Comedy Nights With Kapil. They wanted him to play Daadi, a character that would become iconic. At first, Ali refused, saying he didn’t want to do another female role. The team, however, requested him to agree for four or five episodes as the scripts were already ready. Believing that the character would evolve or be changed, he agreed.
To everyone’s surprise, the show received a bumper opening after its very first episode. The audience loved Daadi, and the planned changes to the character never happened. Ali was already busy shooting for Jeannie Aur Juju, but Daadi’s popularity was such that it overshadowed everything else. In the rush of the show’s success, he didn’t get the chance to revisit the reservations he had.
Speaking about his decision to exit The Kapil Sharma Show, he said, “My character was not working and it became stagnant at one point. There was no development.” He felt that if he wasn’t enjoying the role, he wouldn’t be able to perform it well. Ali believed it was wiser to leave before it diluted the charm of a character he had built.
Another major reason behind his decision was the impact on his personal life. He revealed that during Comedy Circus, his children, who were in primary school at the time, faced bullying because of his cross-dressing performances. Other kids made fun of them. The moment that shook him was when his son asked, “Aapko kuch aur aata nahi hai kya?” That question hit hard. Ali felt it was better to make a change before the outside world started questioning him too.
Though the road wasn’t easy, Ali Asgar believes that phase taught him important lessons about choosing work that makes one truly happy.
