Just before the release of Gangubai Kathiawadi, Chahak Mittal caught up with ALIA BHATT and found that the character’s transitional journey in the film and the actor doing justice to it run parallel

Somewhere in Kamathipura, in a dingy room, a young teenager lies, confused and shocked at her life’s sudden twist. As she tries to come to terms with her current plight, her face is made up of rouge, kajal, and dark red lipstick. Her mouth is stuffed with a cloth. Earlier, when her nose was forcefully pierced for the first time, her screams reverberated through the brothel but to no avail. Lifeless, she could be mistaken for a corpse, but her visitors need only her body now and she just gives in. Gangubai Kathiawadi delves into the dark side of the world’s oldest profession.

The story of the young, 18-year-old who was brought to Kamathipura in then Bombay and sold to a kothewali brings back memories of actor Alia Bhatt’s elder sister, Pooja, playing a similarly traumatised character in Sadak.

Cut to a day before the release of the film when I catch up with Bhatt at The Imperial in the capital, where she has come on a brief visit. I probe her about an incident where when she first heard the script and was offered the role, she was afraid and almost “ran away” or so director Sanjay Leela Bhansali had jokingly said (earlier). Bhatt calls it a rather “funny way” of telling the story of her fear.

She says, “I didn't run away. What's true out of Bhansali sir’s story is that there was a fear in my eyes when I first heard the script. It was a big opportunity for me. At the same time, it was a huge responsibility. And I was not able to mask that fear of ‘will I be able to do it?’ This is why sir always narrates the story in a funny way that I picked up my bag and just ran away (laughs). However, the bigger picture is that I wanted to experience this with him and make sure that one day, I work under his direction and do justice to his vision, collaborating it with mine.”

Since Bhatt’s first audition for Black (2005), for the younger Michelle — the character played by Rani Mukerji in the film —  she has wanted to be a Bhansali heroine. Today, being an SLB heroine, for her, is “everything you can imagine and more because it’s also more of things which you can’t even imagine.”

She adds, “It is an experience and a creative journey, which nobody expects themselves to land on due to the amount of intensity with which sir creates it. He puts a massive effort into your performance and hence, the extraction he expects out of you is also huge. One can only go on such a journey through an SLB film. You feel, realise and discover, and each of these emotions is visible on the screen. I don’t think it’s a language that anybody has before one starts working on it. You develop it on the sets of an SLB film.”

The film is packed with powerful dialogues, vibrant imagery and subtle expressions. However, when the initial teaser went viral across social media, questions about whether a young and charming face like Alia’s suited such a tough character. The actor doesn’t blame the audience for saying that. But she points out the fact that hardships don’t have anything to do with how one looks like. “They can fall upon anybody,” she says and adds, “Anybody irrespective of whether they look strong or not can have Tough experiences. Perhaps, among the audience, it was the same fear if I could do justice to this role. Also, that is what sir would have seen – softness on the outside and experience on the inside — that makes a person like Gangubai so strong and fearless. It completely changes the colour.”

Minimal dialogues, subtle body language, and delivery through the eyes are some things that Bhansali films are known for. Alia found this contrast in the natural play of emotions. “There is a combination of thinking and talking. There are times when you’re thinking something else but saying a completely different thing. This is something we consciously try to play with — when we’re saying something else but our eyes reflect something else. Having said that, you also have to believe whatever you’re saying to make the combination of the two appear effectively. I enjoyed this constant yin and yang. Sometimes, it’s just one or two dialogues and sometimes many. Other times, it is also just genuinely coming from the heart. I think that is also the beauty with which Gangubai’s character has been created in this film,” she says.

One of the other reasons why her young age is being brought into question for such a role, she points out, is because people misconceive the character being an older woman, “who is perhaps in her 40s or more. However, in the film, Gangubai is in only her late 20s and early 30s.”

Another reason why the film has been in the headlines is the legal objection raised by Gangubai Kathiawadi's alleged family to the portrayal of her character —  as a prostitute — which is claimed to be factually incorrect. However, Alia clarifies that the film is based on Hussain Zaidi’s book, Mafia Queens of Mumbai, (first published in 2011). She says, “There were no such objections when the book was released several years ago, why are the questions only raised now?”

She says that the character of Gangubai has, “in fact,” been represented in a very honest, humble and noble way. “I feel people would be very proud of her when they watch the film. Gangubai’s soul herself would be very happy. It’s rather a very sensitively-made film,” she adds.

Given the subject of prostitution and the rights of women in this profession, the film’s narrative is marred by taboos in a country like India. So, is the Indian audience ready for a character like Gangubai? Alia believes there’s nothing to be not ready for. “People’s most common response after watching the trailer was being awestruck and getting goosebumps. And if the audience feels that without any context, it is the most powerful thing. The fact that there is eagerness among people, irrespective of what age group, especially women, to watch the film indicates what the audience wants.”

Recently, actor Kangana Ranaut took a dig at Alia related to nepotism in the industry and predicted the film's eventual failure at the box office. Alia, however, chooses silence in this matter and says, “No amount of attention or words go to such kind of chatter.”

As to her forthcoming film Brahmastra with partner Ranbir Kapoor, she says, “One can’t find a way or help anyway because it’s a pandemic and as humans, we’d have to learn to adapt to it. So, the idea is that once the film is on floors, it recovers, just like us!”