Amaal Mallik, typically someone who keeps his personal life out of the spotlight, recently got candid about a breakup that really hit him hard.
He revealed his ex ended things because of his Muslim identity and because her parents simply couldn’t accept his career as a musician. It crushed him.
All this happened while he was working on Kabir Singh, recording “Pehla Pyaar”—which, honestly, felt like pouring his heartbreak straight into the song.
Amaal Mallik: Working on Kabir Singh was the biggest heartbreak for me.
In a chat with Siddharth Kannan, Amaal admitted, “Working on Kabir Singh was the biggest heartbreak for me. I was going through a really rough patch. The girl I was dating at the time married someone else.” They’d been together for five years, from 2014 to 2019, but her parents wouldn’t accept their daughter dating anyone from the film business.
He recalled, right before a gig, she called and told him she was getting married. She even said she’d run away if he showed up. But he says something in him—maybe channelling Shah Rukh Khan from DDLJ—kicked in and told him, “No, if your parents can’t accept my religion or respect my career, I wish you the best.”
Amaal Mallik opens up about his identity
The whole thing cut deep. Amaal opened up about how people assume he’s Muslim just because of his dad, but his mom’s actually a Saraswat Brahmin Hindu, and he goes to Mount Mary Church in Bandra whenever he feels lost. His family is spiritual—they believe in God, but they don’t live in fear of Him.
He also talked about how his ex’s family saw him only through the lens of his supposed “Islamic background,” when, in reality, he doesn’t strictly follow any religion at all.
Despite the pain, Amaal thinks the breakup was probably for the best. He needed to see that if someone judges him for his name or his place in Bollywood, the relationship was doomed anyway. He’s clear now—he wants people in his life who are open-minded.