Alia Bhatt has spent just a little over nine years in Bollywood, and has now emerged as one of the most bankable stars. From playing the over-the-top Shanaya in her debut film Student Of The Year in 2012, Alia has carried hard-hitting films on her shoulders, including Dear Zindagi and Raazi.
It has a journey full of ups and downs, and it all began when Alia auditioned for the Student Of The Year audition, by reading lines from her now-boyfriend Ranbir Kapoor’s film, Wake Up Sid. She re-enacted the scene where Konkona Sen Sharma and Ranbir meet for the first time at a college party.
Apart from this, Alia also danced to the song Bahara, from Sonam Kapoor’s film, I hate Luv Stories, something that later caught producer-filmmaker Karan Johar’s eye. In an old interview, he recalled, “There was this young girl, straight out of school in Mumbai, and she just danced to Bahara, danced away. I knew there was something about this girl that would just connect with India.” In fact, Karan Johar later called Alia his ‘new Kareena
In one of her first interviews to Zoom, Alia recalled that she didn’t want to have it so easy, just because of her filmi background. “Out of 500 girls, I was the lucky one to make it.” Asked what she had that Karan Johar appreciated, she answered that it was her ‘filminess’. “I was a big round ball when I auditioned, and I did all the jhatkas and matkas, so I gave all the expressions. I am happy that he saw that in me.”
Karan Johar, in an interview with PTI in 2012, revealed that there were 400 other actors who auditioned for her role. “We screen tested over 400 girls from across Mumbai and other cities. This is when Niranjan Iyengar told me that Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter Alia was raring to go and she could just be the right fit for the film. I did her test and was convinced that she had this X factor that could work for the film,” he said.
Alia Bhatt has a long list of projects lined up for 2022, including Darlings, Gangubai Kathiawadi and RRR.
