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Actor Ibrahim Ali Khan is looking back at his first year in Bollywood with brutal honesty. After two back-to-back OTT releases that didn’t quite land, the young actor has now admitted that he may have been too quick to jump into films. In a candid chat with Esquire India, Ibrahim said he didn’t take his acting career lightly but now realises that he could have been more patient. “I am not saying I took my chance for granted, but I stepped into the industry like, ‘Ho jaayega’. Of course, I was working very hard—like I’m still working hard on my speech issue. But in a way, I feel I must have rushed into that movie. I was 21 when I began shooting for it—others around me are doing it at 26, 27, 28—and I now think I could have been more mindful of the scale of what was going to happen,” he said. Ibrahim made his debut earlier this year with Nadaaniyan, a Netflix film directed by Shauna Gautam. The film also featured Mahima Chaudhry, Suniel Shetty, Dia Mirza, and Jugal Hansraj but failed to impress critics, earning only a 12% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. His second outing, Sarzameen, released four months later and faced a similar fate despite a strong ensemble cast including Kajol and Prithviraj Sukumaran. The 23-year-old actor, son of Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh, and grandson of Sharmila Tagore, said his illustrious family keeps him grounded and motivated. “I usually always have self-doubt. Whenever I feel unsure, all this (lineage) is a reminder of who’s at home. ‘You’re Saif Ali Khan’s kid. Bebo’s (stepmom Kareena Kapoor) in your family. You should be able to do it. You should be smashing it, man,’” he added. Despite a rocky start, Ibrahim is determined to make his mark. He will next be seen in Diler, a sports drama directed by Kunal Deshmukh, also starring Sreeleela. The film, said to revolve around a marathon runner, is expected to hit screens in 2026.
