The actor has been busy past few week with prep work for the film that is set in the late 1800's in the Victorian Empire where Ali's character, Abdul is an Indian servant who comes from India and eventually develops a unique friendship with Queen Victoria. As a part of his role, Ali's character Abdul was also the one who taught Queen Victoria, the Urdu language.
Hailing from Lucknow and coming from a family of Urdu literates, Ali has been versed with the language however owing to the film he has had to further his knowledge in the language. Thus the actor has been taking in-depth tutoring to learn the language and its nuances.