Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt has been roped in to star in Netflix’s ‘Heart of Stone’, and the actress is set to make her global debut opposite Gal Gadot. The spy thriller also features ’50 Shades of Grey’ star Jamie Dornan. This marks Alia’s global debut after dominating the Bollywood scene as one of India’s biggest stars that including her winning four Filmfare Awards.
The Student of The Year actress’ most recent film, Gangubai Kathiawadi directed by legendary filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali secured the third biggest opening last weekend and the biggest non-holiday opening for a Bollywood film since the start of the pandemic.
Her 2019 film Gully Boy, directed by Zoya Akhtar, premiered at that year’s Berlin Film Festival and has become an international hit, grossing over USD 25 Million worldwide to date. The film is also India’s official submission for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2020 Oscars. Recognising her international appeal, the Academy inducted her into its 2020 class.
Talking about Alia’s latest film, Gangubai Kathiwadi, while the film has already crossed the 100 crore mark worldwide within the first week of its release, the movie is inching closer to joining the 100 crore club in the domestic circuit too. The movies’ second-week collection is Rs. 92.22 crores.
The crime-drama is likely to be the fourth Hindi film to hit Rs 100 crore in the post-pandemic times after Akshay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi, Ranveer Singh’s 83 and Allu Arjun’s Pushpa (Hindi version). Sooryavanshi was released in November last year and had earned a total of Rs 294 crore. On the other hand, 83 The Movie hit the theatres in December 2021. The film had managed to collect Rs 183 crore in the worldwide box office. Telugu movie Pushpa became a massive success and its Hindi version too earned over Rs 100 crore.
Earlier, it was reported that Gangubai Kathiawadi has also become the pandemic’s third-largest opener after Sooryavanshi and 83.
In Gangubai Kathiawadi , Alia is seen playing the role of a young girl who was sold into prostitution by her suitor Ramnik Lal. The story of the movie has been adapted from a chapter of Hussain Zaidi’s book Mafia Queens of Mumbai. Besides Alia, the movie also features Vijay Raaz and Seema Pahwa among others. Ajay Devgn also made a cameo in the film. Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Alia Bhatt also took the movie to Berlin Film Festival earlier last month for its worldwide premiere. Later, Bhansali revealed that the movie received a standing ovation of eight minutes at the film festival.
