Alia Bhatt talks to Nisha Jamwal about her father, staying grounded, marriage and ageing.
What makes today’s Bollywood newbies more actors than stars?
I’m just another person being passionate about my job. I’m not doing anyone a favour by being an actor. If you want to be the most successful star in the country, you need that ‘exclusive’ quality. I don’t overthink or over-plan. I see the value of spontaneity. Since I was young and I’ve always thought I was special. If today Beyoncé didn’t feel special then she wouldn’t be special.
What do you have to do if you want to be most successful star of the country?
Ambition mixed with clarity and groundedness is essential. Once you’ve set out, you can’t help thinking big. You need to be competitive. I cannot be an actor who tried and failed. I feel nowadays people ask more questions. Even the media has become more aggressive. Shoes, care, skin. Every department of film-making is more aggressive today.
What is it that you do to make things happen in such an atmosphere that is so ephemeral?
In my most insecure headspace I purely go through instinct. If I watch SRK or Salman and their films, I watch like I’m part of the audience. When I’m shown a script I always think through it like the audience would. Will I enjoy it if I’m watching myself? Will I be this part? Will it entertain and involve the watcher? I should always want to do the film. I don’t know if I can always be this choosy, but as long as I can choose I will. Also if my insecurity and doubts go away, I might not strive as much.
Does your mother or father brainstorm scripts with you?
Hardly. Dad didn’t start my career. I try to talk to Karan if at all with anyone; he’s my first ‘go-to’ person. I am on a five-year Dharma contract and it’s the wisest decision I ever made. It was Karan’s idea, we were most excited with it. He’s my friend and confidant, and he’d kill me if I called him ‘sir’. Yes maybe Mani Ratnam would be Mani ‘sir’, Raju Hirani would be ‘sir’, but I don’t call Vikas (Bahl) ‘sir’.
Work mantras?
I don’t believe there is a mantra. There are normal things you do like punctuality, care after the way you look. You try to be genuine and make wise film choices.
Marriage or relationships, do you let it come in your way?
It’s not that I don’t want to be in a relationship. But I think there is a time and place. I’m a firm believer in marriage though. I have a plan. At around 32, I’d like to go off, get married, have two kids and come back—it’s all sorted in my head. I’m going with the flow at the moment. I am a romantic at heart but have a practical approach. I feel people get married twice or thrice. Father married twice. People do have to sometimes. At home we are extremely honest about what we do and feel.
I notice you don’t mention your mother as often as you did 18-odd months ago.
Yes. I feel more equipped, even older. Highway changed my perspective to life. Prior to it I felt empty, not in a shallow way, but as a person. While shooting for it in the mountains, a kind of energy took over and self-discovery and learning happened at a deeper level of the self. I dream of buying a home in the mountains. I’ve aged since I entered the film world. My perspective on my life has changed. I feel earlier that I didn’t understand emotions as deeply as I do now, having played different people. A certain gravity was unearthed. No arrogance, no ‘me myself and I’ but yes definite change.