If there’s one thing that Alia Bhatt knows for sure, it’s how to light up the silver screen. Whether it’s playing the role of a rich girl who suffers from Stockholm Syndrome and forms a bond with her kidnapper in Highway, a Bihari hockey player who gets embroiled in the world of drugs in Udta Punjab, a naive student who transforms into a spy in her husband’s home in Raazi or playing a sex worker who rises through the ranks to become a matriarch of 4,000 sex workers in her recently released Gangubai Kathiawadi- it’s all in a day’s work for the actor. She manages to do it all with supreme ease.
Is there anything she can’t do? Not much. She’s steadily becoming a one-woman show. In an industry, which puts its money where its hero is, Bhatt has shown that she doesn’t need a male star for her films to be successful.
The actor, who turns 29 today, started her journey in films with Karan Johar’s Student Of The Year. In her decade-long career, the actor says that her current state of mind isn’t about being at the top but working in films that she enjoys.
“The rat race is something that isn’t satisfying and sometimes it gets addictive and negative also,” Alia says. “So it doesn’t drive me anymore. I don’t want to be in that game. What is driving me is to keep working with people with who I am comfortable and doing films and roles that I love. I want to keep it light, happy and do meaningful cinema,” she says adding, “I am not sure what I am hungry to do at the moment, I’m just looking at having good experiences and keep moving on as I feel that is what life is all about,” the actor adds.
In her tenth year at the movies, Bhatt will make her Telugu debut with SS Rajamouli’s RRR. She recently announced her Hollywood debut with Netflix’s Heart Of Stone which also features Gal Gadot and Jamie Doman and has also turned producer with Darlings, a film for which she collaborated with Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Production.
While talking about taking these bold decisions at such a young age, Alia says, “I’ don’t fear making mistakes as I think it is a part and parcel of life. I can’t always make the right decisions. Sometimes in making a mistake you never find out what happened and I don’t want to be a bunch of ‘What-if.’ I am totally capable of dealing with a decision going wrong and that’s what helps me take bold decisions. Also, confidence really comes from decisions that went well in the past. When I did a film like Raazi, there was a belief in me that the film isn’t only good but it is going to be a commercial success too. And it happened, so my instinct was right. I feel there is something to learn from every film, even if it doesn’t do well.”
On turning producer, Bhatt says that the idea is to nurture new talent. “I remember having a conversation with my father where he told me, ‘Alia, how long are you going to fuel your own engine? After a point of time, you need to use the brand that you have created for yourself to aid other people’s careers.’ So it is not only about my game but is also about giving other people a chance. I want to nurture good writers, thinkers, and directors, and believing in the content that I am producing is a different passion altogether which I am excited about.”
Are there certain kinds of films that she wants to produce? Alia says, “I want to tell heart-touching and emotional stories. Jasmeet came to me with the script of Darlings and I really liked it. It is a character and a genre that I have personally not attempted earlier. I want to produce films that become conversation starters and the idea for the next few years is to build and nurture this production house.”
While she refuses to spill any beans on her big Hollywood debut, she says that she wants to work in projects that allow her to explore her to push herself as an actor, “I just don’t want to do it for the heck of it and to tick it off the box. I want to look at opportunities which should have a good part, an interesting dynamic, and cast, something that is new and relevant.”
