‘I don’t propagate infidelity, but understand human nature’

In a tête-à-tête with Alia Bhatt, the talented young starlet talks about the complex nature of love, venturing into production, older sister Pooja Bhatt and her tryst with anxiety.

In mere seven years of her budding career, this young dimpled actress has seen a skyrocketing growth of the kind that has never been seen before. From debuting in 2012 love-triangle Student of the Year to returning to another love-triangle Kalank this year, the 26-year-old Alia Bhatt is unabashedly unstoppable.

Unlike her contemporaries, Alia’s filmography boasts of a well-balanced collection of diverse genres to her name. Be it as a bratty teenager, or an anti-heroine, the young actress is known for approaching her projects with sincerity, professionalism and dedication that becomes illustrative in her recent award sweep for her performance in Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi.

Talking about her recent wins, the actress says, “It does feel humble when you win an award because you are reminded of all the effort that went into making the film. I don’t take them too seriously, but I do accept the recognition because it does make you feel that the hard work has been paid off in a good way.”

Alia will be next seen essaying the role of a young bride, Roop, who is conflicted between Aditya Roy Kapur’s Satya and Varun Dhawan’s Zafar in Kalank. Like her previous roles, this role too comes with a challenge as the character is torn in an extra-marital affair. Although, in Alia’s personal opinion, she doesn’t intend to propagate infidelity but is privy to the complicated nature of love.

Born to Mahesh Bhatt’s second marriage with British Indian actress Soni Razdan, the actress gives her parents’ example to put forth her thoughts.

“My father met my mother because he had an extramarital affair. I am not as black and white about life; sometimes in life, things happen for a reason. Of course, you would not want to propagate infidelity and I don’t propagate it, but I understand the nature of human — it’s not always that easy and it is something that’s prevalent,” she says.

Adding further, she urges one to have a perspective rather than a judgement. “You can’t say it doesn’t exist or it can’t exist. It does! So try and understand it, look at it in a different way, or disagree with it, but have some perspective over it and don’t turn your head away,” she says.

At a time when the major actresses have ventured into producing movies, like Priyanka Chopra under her banner Purple Pebble Pictures, Anushka Sharma under her production company Clean Slate Films, and most recently Deepika Padukone as a co-producer in Chhapaak, the young star is also keen to follow suit.

“I don’t understand it but I am very eager to understand it and I think I have a sense of it. Yes, I do want to produce but I would not really be the line producer. I would just creatively produce a film. Sometimes I will act in it or sometimes, I won’t, so that’s the future I hope that works out,” affirms the Gully Boy actress.

Looking at the ambitious actress, one may be reminded of Alia’s elder sister Pooja Bhatt who had also turned producer at very young in her career. Whether she inspired her to grab the reins behind the camera is unclear, but Pooja’s courageous success with sobriety has surely been the most inspiring lesson for Alia.

“She has been a big inspiration for me in general because she is such a strong independent woman. She is not just strong, she is brave. The way she worked to give up alcohol, I think, has been the most exciting journey of Pooja’s. I am inspired by her journey, ” she reveals.

Moreover, Alia’s other sister Shaheen Bhatt has also been a source of inspiration. The older Bhatt sister is a mental health advocate who has also penned down her account of her struggle with depression and insomnia in her book Never Been (Un)Happier. While Alia reveals that she never suffered from depression, but reveals to have had her own tryst with anxiety caused by high-pressures of overburdening work. “I have not faced depression and I have not got lost in stardom, but I do get anxiety from time to time. Last year, I was working round the clock where I didn’t have time to myself, so it was a mixture of chemicals where I was barely sleeping and that was tough. You have to accept the highs and lows. I have felt the lows for no reason,” she pours her heart out.

While the pressures of the job might have got to her occasionally, she chooses to remain unaffected by jibes and judgements.

“I don’t let 3000 or 300 people’s judgements bother me. It has not happened to me till now, but if it does, I am okay with it. I am not someone who needs to be applauded all the time. As long as I am aware of who I am, that’s the mark of a comfortable person. You have to be mindful of who you really are and accept this is the person I am,” she signs off.