From being a gauche teenager told to shed 20 kg to get a role in Student Of The Year, to becoming the most sought after heroine in the Indian cinema world today, Alia Bhatt’s journey to the top has been unlike any starkid’s career in Bollywood – full of struggle after a torn-to-shreds debut. But nothing deters the impulsive, brutally honest, daredevil that Alia is. “I don’t want to change a thing about myself,” this 21-year-old tells DEEBASHREE MOHANTY in an exclusive interview in which she also talks about her heartbreak when her performance was trashed, her special friendship with Varun Dhawan, and how, like any other girl, she too goes through rough patches and yearns for admiration
Alia Bhatt always had attitude, ever since she was asked by teachers at her tiny-tots school to do a ramp walk — for other children to see and learn from. But it took just her first meeting with director Karan Johar to bring her crashing down from her self-erected pedestal. Though Karan was a charmer, he told her in no uncertain terms that she was too fat and had to lose at least 20 kg for him to even consider her for a role in his movie. She felt gauche, obese and totally out of place.
She tells you how the walk back to her car was the longest she had taken in years. “It was sheer pain. I felt as if I was an ugly duckling. At first, I was embarrassed, but later felt angry that I had gone to meet a director in the shape I was in. I decided to shed weight, meet him and take the role. Only that would redeem my self-respect,” she recalls.
Talk show host Niranjan Iyer, a good friend of Pooja (Bhatt), had recommended her name to Karan for Student Of The Year (SOTY). “I was nervous, irritated, unsure and extremely apprehensive about this meeting with Karan but my parents insisted. I was so nervous that I could hardly speak. I found it difficult to breathe and I wanted to run away from his office. At the end of this two-hour meeting, he said he could give me an audition but I would have to lose 20 kg in the next six months,” Alia recalls.
She did lose those 20 kilos in less than six months and got her first job in an industry that doesn’t spare anyone with faults. Apparently, she had many and the release of SOTY showed her how.
Although the film did well at the box office, her acting skills were torn to shreds so much so that she wept over the reviews and the industry talk. “I heard such harsh comments. Filmmakers had written me off as a silly girl. Some said I should never try my luck at the movies. I felt miserable and unwanted. For a week, I shunned all outdoor activities as I didn’t want people to spot me and make fun,” she recalls.
But determination to prove herself and a helping hand from friend Varun Dhawan saw her through this “most testing phase of my debuting career in Bollywood”.
It is this determination that won her many accolades at the Jamuna Bai Narsee School where she studied and was a hot favourite among students and teachers alike. According to Alia, she was a popular student only because she behaved like a celebrity. “I was not a bully nor did I throw starry tantrums but I behaved like myself. Sometimes, I used to boast about my Bollywood connection to friends. I would tell them who came visiting on a weekend and on my birthdays I would ask my father to invite big names. I was a complete show-off. My mannerisms were also nothing short of a heroine. My teachers would make me stand and ask my peers to follow suit. That gave me a kick. I always wanted to have a fan following. It started early,” she tells you with a laugh.
Now that she has some 7,298 followers on Twitter and other social network sites, Alia feels she can do with more. “I love admirers. I love it when people praise my beauty and work,” the not so modest Miss Bhatt, says.
“I’m a very private person and don’t like to open up to anyone. I’ve my own way to deal with stress and unhappiness. And I don’t dislike this trait in me. But after SOTY, barring a few catchy numbers that were chartbusters, I felt like I had lost everything. I desperately needed someone to talk to and Varun Dhawan was there like a pillar. We spent a lot of time together during the promotions and I liked Varun’s simplicity. He would drop in just to cheer me up. Sometimes, we would gossip about stars in Bollywood, at other times, chatted about food and music. He became my BFF. I really needed support at that time and I will always be grateful to him for pulling me out of depression,” Alia reveals.
Such phases, wherein she feels she has been let down by life, come to her frequently. But says she is quick to move on and be happy about the future. The biggest plus of her ‘temporary mood swings’ is that it has brought her close to two special people. If Varun was a pillar of strength, Arjun Kapoor was constant support when Alia was going through another ‘tough patch’.
“I was under a lot of emotional turmoil during the shooting of Imtiaz Ali’s Highway. It was a mature and demanding role and I felt bogged down. Since I was halfway through Abhishek Varman’s 2 States, I wanted to wrap up Highway and then concentrate on the other one. This really stressed me out. In the interim, I lost my cat. In that low phase, Arjun was like a silent friend. He is not a great talker but he is a good listener. He knew when to give me space and when to give me a tight hug, just to say everything will be fine. Every girl needs a man like Arjun who helps steady the ship,” Alia says, rubbishing rumours that Kapoor and she were having an affair.
According to media reports, the couple was inseparable during the shooting of 2 States and post that as well. But Bhatt says it was never anything beyond friendship. “We are good friends,” she clarifies for the nth time. Her relationship status has never been complicated although she has been ‘single’ for quite some time now. “It’s been two years yaar, since I had a relationship. I had a long one when I was in Class 12 and then a brief one after SOTY. I have been single ever since. I have no problems with relationships but I am not ready for any sort of a commitment for now,” she insists.
Just when you are marvelling at her youthful candidness, she rushes to add: “I am not an open book and I like it that way”. Her ‘my way or the highway’ attitude, she explains, stems from her strict upbringing but protected childhood. “I was not pampered silly in the regular fashion. My mother and elder sister Shaheen were over protective. In a sense, they wanted me to live in the happy bubble they had created for me. I feel my mother was scared that her relationship with my dad would give me the ‘wrong impression’ of marriage. Shaheen was the more sensible sorts. She let me live my life on my terms. If I come across as rigid today, it’s because I had a wonderful elder sister who gave into my tantrums,” Alia tells you.
Ask her about what she thinks of marriage and she says with a grimace: “Ghoom phir kay shaadi pe aahi jaatey hain. I’m tired of everyone wanting to know what I think of marriage and whether I will marry at all. I want to clarify that my idea of marriage and settling down has nothing to do with what my parents went through. That was their life. This is mine. I will decide when I want to settle, if I want to settle at all. At this point, I haven’t given it a serious thought,” the 21-year-old says, adding that she loves to be with children and has made up her mind to have two of her own.
It’s 10.30 am on a Sunday morning but she is her usual chirpy self. In an industry where lazy Sundays are hard to come by, this Bhatt girl prefers to ‘wrap up’ everything pending on that day. Unlike other actors, Alia believes in the ‘early to bed and early to rise’ philosophy but has a weird reason for it. “I hate moving around in a crowd, so I prefer to finish my chores when everyone is sleeping in the morning. At night, I feel tired and unless I am dragged for a very close friend’s party, I prefer to retrospect and sleep,” she tells you. Breakfast varies between bread toast, cornflakes, fruit and parantha. A small eater, Alia likes to gorge on ice creams and mithais are her weak spot. “I make it a point to have eight meals a day. That way, I can limit my portion sizes and food gets digested easily. This diet has worked for me,” the slim-trim Alia explains. Dieting and shedding weight was not all that easy for her but when it came to her job, she insists shedding the kilos was just one meticulous part of her work ethics.
And what is it in a relationship that attracts Bhatt the mostIJ “It is the feeling that you have someone waiting for you when you get back home. I hate going back to an empty house where no one is there to ask about my whereabouts, to eat with me or to share stuff. I love children and I would love to go through the motherhood experience,” she reveals.
Motherhood, however, will have to wait as Alia has her hands full at the moment with roles as diverse as they can get. The 5 feet 5 inches actress says, versatility is the key to survival in Bollywood. “I have been taught that doing good movies is essential. It doesn’t matter if the budget is low and the film is shot at Filmistaan. My father told me that the initial few films would be like my learning experience. I should get jittery if I don’t have a hit after having done 15 films. I think I have fared well. Now comes the difficult part of keeping up with the pace. I have set a standard for myself and I am not going to lower it,” a determined Alia tells you.
When it comes to choosing the right scripts, she prefers to take the decision herself. “I don’t want to blame anyone if I choose a horrifying script. So I do the job myself. I have to believe in the character first before signing on the contract. I take my sweet time to think and re-think about the script and only then give my nod. I am very lucky that I have had the right stories to begin with. SOTY was the perfect canvass for a newcomer. There was a lot of scope to learn and make amends. Highway and 2 States were strong scripts. I am sure anyone would have done well in those films, just that God and luck favoured me,” she informs.
Apart from her being extremely upfront, what strikes you most about Alia is that she is brutally honest. The actress tells you that her daredevil attitude has created a lot of enemies in the film industry and the media fraternity as well. “People call me a snob. They say I’m bigdee hui ladki who has been pampered silly by her father. little do they know that my father and I were not even on talking terms for a long time,” she reveals.
Mahesh Bhatt has always been an inspiration for her and Pooja and Rahul Bhatt are the best step siblings one could ask for, but Alia is closest to her mother Soni Razdan and her sister Shaheen. “Pooja is like a teacher and a guide. She has always helped me with matters regarding dates and scripts. Her cautious approach to everything is something I want to imbibe. Rahul is a bindaas party type munda. We have common friends and hit it out often. We share the same gym so we catch up every other day. He is a nice guy. But Shaheen is the one who knows me inside out. She can tell when I’m upset, what is irking me, who is disturbing me so on. I’ve got my mother’s determination. She has struggled all through to give us a good life and set an example for all of us. When I have an outdoor shoot, I make it a point to speak with her daily. It gives me a lot of peace of mind,” she tells you.
Soni, who married Mahesh Bhatt at age 36, was his second wife. Being an actress was a fulltime profession, so Razdan had to give up her career to raise her children. “I’ve never seen someone who can adapt to changes so well. Mom has this unique capability. She is a wonderful actor and the best mom in the world. There have been ups and downs and she has had her share of problems, but she has never let that affect our lives. I don’t remember my father attending a single PTM or dropping by school ever. He found all this ‘teacher teaching and student learning’ a waste of time. He would be happy if I scored pass marks. He wanted me to learn life skills. For him that mattered more than a 90 per cent in the Boards,” Alia says.
Although her father was not around during her growing up years, Alia says he knew what was going on in her life and would give her valuable advice. He was a strict disciplinarian and a possessive father who had a different way of showing his affection. “He would lock me up if he saw me with a boy. Any boy. He didn’t want any of us to date. He was scared that his daughters would get into wrong company. I used to get very annoyed with his interfering attitude at first, but later, I understood it was fatherly affection. He had a unique way of expressing his love and pride. I have never taken any vacations with my father. When my sister and I decided to go to Goa for a weekend after Highway was released, he said he wanted to join us for a night. That was a fun night. He couldn’t sleep the entire night. The next morning, he left a note on the table saying, ‘I enjoyed Highway. Done well!’ I cried out in happiness,” she discloses.
Alia is hoping that with her upcoming movies, with Homi Adajania and other filmmakers, she will receive more such notes.
