Alia Bhatt
Alia Bhatt (; born 15 March 1993) is a British actress of Indian descent. Known for her work in Hindi-language films, she has received several accolades include four Filmfare Awards. One of India's highest-paid actresses, she has appeared in "Forbes India" Celebrity 100 list since 2014 and was featured by "Forbes Asia" in their 30 Under 30 list of 2017. Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. After making her acting debut as a child in the 1999 thriller "Sangharsh", she played her first leading role  in Karan Johar's teen drama "Student of the Year" (2012). She won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for playing a kidnapping victim in the road drama "Highway" (2014), and went on to establish herself with starring roles in several films produced by Johar's studio Dharma Productions, including the romances "2 States" (2014), "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania" (2014), and "Badrinath Ki Dulhania" (2017); and the coming-of-age drama "Dear Zindagi" (2016). Bhatt won three Filmfare Awards for Best Actress for playing a Bihari migrant in the crime drama "Udta Punjab" (2016), an undercover spy in the  thriller "Raazi" (2018), and the volatile girlfriend of an aspiring rapper in the musical drama "Gully Boy" (2019). Following two poorly received films, she gained praise for playing the titular role in "Gangubai Kathiawadi" (2022). In addition to acting in films, Bhatt has launched her own line of clothing and handbags, and is the founder of the ecological initiative CoExist. She has sung seven of her film songs, including the single "Samjhawan Unplugged" in 2014. Bhatt is married to the actor Ranbir Kapoor. Early life. Alia Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 into the Bhatt family to Indian film  director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother is of Kashmiri Pandit and German ancestry. She holds British citizenship. She has an elder sister, Shaheen, and two half-siblings, Pooja and Rahul Bhatt. Actor Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are her paternal cousins, while producer Mukesh Bhatt is her uncle. Bhatt was educated at the Jamnabai Narsee School but dropped out from her 12th to pursue a career in acting. Describing her childhood, Bhatt has said, "I had a rather grounded and modest upbringing. I didn’t get the pleasures that  people assume I would’ve got because I am Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter." Growing up, she did not share a close bond with her father; Razdan has said that she raised her children mostly as a single parent as her husband did not take much interest in their lives. Bhatt aspired to be an actress from a young age, and has said that she first realised it while rehearsing for the school choir in kindergarten. She soon began dance lessons at Shiamak Davar's institute. Her first acting role was at age five in her father's production venture "Sangharsh  (1999), in which she briefly played the younger version of Preity Zinta's character. Talking about her experience, Bhatt later said, I don’t remember much of the shoot. I would go to the sets only for the food". Acting career. Early work (2012–2014). Bhatt had her first leading role in 2012 with Karan Johar's teen film "Student of the Year", alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast after losing 16 kg. She played a sophisticated teenage girl involved in a love triangle. Anupama Chopra of "Hindustan Times" mentioned similarities between her  character Shanaya Singhania and Kareena Kapoor's Pooja "Poo" Sharma in Johar's "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..." (2001), but noted that her performance was "without the killer attitude". Lisa Tsering of "The Hollywood Reporter" dismissed her as "a washout. Not only is she inelegant in the dance numbers, but her expressions are limited; and the digital retouching of her face throughout the film is a distraction". "Student of the Year" grossed at the box office, becoming a commercial success. Dismayed by the critical response to "Student of the Year", Bhatt was keen to play a better role, which she found  in Imtiaz Ali's road film "Highway" (2014). She starred as a lonely teenage girl who develops stockholm syndrome after being abducted. She took diction lessons to improve her Hindi, and was challenged by the emotional and physical requirements of the part. Ali shot the film sequentially and several scenes were improvised on set based on Bhatt's reactions. She has said that several aspects of her character's journey mirrored her own, as it was the first time she experienced situations that were different from her own privileged upbringing. Ronnie Scheib of "Variety" took note of her "endearingly cockeyed  perf" and commended her for "bringing an underlying sadness and wistful intelligence" to her part. The film underperformed at the box office, but Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and also gained a Best Actress nomination at the ceremony. She next appeared in Vikas Bahl's short film on women's safety, entitled "Going Home". Continuing her collaboration with Johar's company, Dharma Productions, Bhatt starred in the romantic films "2 States" and "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania" (both 2014). The former was an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's , and is about two management students who have trouble  convincing their parents of their relationship. For her role as a headstrong Tamil girl, she learnt to speak her lines in Tamil with help from a tutor. Shubhra Gupta of "The Indian Express" was appreciative of Bhatt, labelling her a "surprise" and "easy and fresh and natural". She played a Punjabi girl who has an affair before her wedding in "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania", which marked the debut of writer-director Shashank Khaitan, and was described as a tribute to "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" (1995) by Johar. Writing for "India Today", Rohit Khilnani thought that Bhatt had pitched in "one  of her best performances so far", though Nandini Ramnath of "Mint" found her lacking in subtlety, writing that she was "more comfortable acting out her feelings through dialogue and actions". Both films were commercially successful, each earning over worldwide. Her accomplishments in 2014 established Bhatt's career. Career progression (2015–2018). Bhatt reunited with Bahl for the romantic comedy "Shaandaar". Released in 2015, the film features Shahid Kapoor and Bhatt as insomniacs who fall in love during a destination wedding. Kunal Guha of "Mumbai Mirror" criticised the film and wrote that Bhatt "socks life into her character but fails to pump  any into this film". "Shaandaar" did not perform well commercially. She began 2016 with a supporting role in the ensemble drama "Kapoor & Sons", which was a critical and commercial success. Bhatt next took on the part of a poor Bihari migrant in "Udta Punjab" (2016), a crime drama about substance abuse from writer-director Abhishek Chaubey. The intense role marked a departure from the mostly light-hearted parts she had played before, and in preparation, she watched documentaries on drug abuse and learned to speak a Bihari dialect. The film generated controversy when the Central Board of Film Certification deemed  that it represented Punjab in a negative light and demanded extensive censorship before its release. The Bombay High Court later cleared the film for exhibition with one scene cut. Bhatt's performance was critically acclaimed. Raja Sen of Rediff.com wrote that she "commits to her accent and deals with the film's most unsavoury section, and is stunning during an incendiary speech that elevates the entire film to a whole other level." Bhatt next played a troubled young woman who consults with a therapist (played by Shah Rukh Khan) in Gauri Shinde's coming-of-age film "Dear Zindagi" (2016 ). Writing for IndieWire, Anisha Jhaveri commended her for providing millennial angst with "a three-dimensionality". "Udta Punjab" and "Dear Zindagi" gained Bhatt awards attention; for the former, she won the Screen Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, and for the latter, she received an additional Best Actress nomination at Filmfare. The series of successful films continued with Bhatt's next projectthe romantic comedy "Badrinath Ki Dulhania" (2017)which reunited her with Khaitan and Dhawan. It tells the story of an independent young woman (Bhatt) who refuses to conform to patriarchal expectations from her chauvinistic fiancée (Dhawan). Rachel Saltz of  The New York Times took note of the film's statement on gender equality and wrote, "Without ever falling into the clichés of spunky Bollywood heroine, [Bhatt] effortlessly embodies that admirable thing: a modern woman." She received another Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. Meghna Gulzar's espionage thriller "Raazi" (2018) starred Bhatt as Sehmat Khan, a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani army officer. Set during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the film is an adaptation of Harinder Sikka's novel "Calling Sehmat". Anna M. M. Vetticad of "Firstpost" found Bhatt to be "stupendous" in the role, adding that  the young star once again displaying the maturity and confidence of a veteran on camera. "Raazi" proved to be one of the highest-grossing female-led Hindi films, and its success led Box Office India to credit Bhatt as the most successful contemporary actress of Hindi cinema. She won another Best Actress award at Filmfare. Section::::"Gully Boy" and beyond (2019–present). Bhatt launched her own production company named Eternal Sunshine Productions in early 2019. Her first appearance that year was opposite Ranveer Singh in Zoya Akhtar's "Gully Boy", a musical inspired by the life of the street rappers Divine  and Naezy. She attended acting workshops to learn a ghetto dialect to enable her to improvise on set. The film premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. Writing for "Screen International", Lee Marshall opined that "it's Bhatt’s sharp performance that carries most successfully the mix of wry humour, romance and social comment that "Gully Boy" essays". With global earnings of over , the film emerged as Bhatt's highest-grossing release. "Gully Boy" won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, and Bhatt was awarded with her career's third Best Actress trophy. The ensemble period drama "Kalank" (2019) marked  Bhatt's biggest-budget film to that point. Set in the 1940s prior to the partition of India, it featured Dhawan and her as star-crossed lovers. She watched the films "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960) and "Umrao Jaan" (1981) to learn the body language of women from the era; to better her Urdu-speaking skills, she watched the Pakistani television series "Zindagi Gulzar Hai". Shubhra Gupta bemoaned that she was "watchable, if increasingly, exasperatingly familiar". The film did not perform well at the box office. Bhatt next starred in "Sadak 2" (2020), a sequel to her father's crime film  Sadak (1991), which due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India could not be released theatrically and instead streamed on Disney+ Hotstar, starring Dutt and Kapur alongside her. The death of Sushant Singh Rajput sparked a debate on nepotism in the Hindi film industry; his fans blamed Bhatt for being one of the beneficiaries of nepotism and for once speaking dismissively of Rajput on Johar's chat show "Koffee with Karan". This led to vote brigading on the film's trailer on YouTube, on which it became the second most-disliked video. The film received negative reviews, and Pallabi Dey Purkayastha  of "The Times of India" dismissed Bhatt's performance "by her own high standards" to be "strictly average". In 2022, Bhatt starred as the titular prostitute in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's crime drama "Gangubai Kathiawadi", which premiered at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival. In preparation, she studied the work of actress Meena Kumari, and watched films about prostitution such as "Mandi" (1983) and "Memoirs of a Geisha" (2005). Commenting on media speculation that she had been miscast in such an assertive part, Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV opined that "the actress puts all doubts to rest with a marvellously lively  performance". Additionally, Stutee Ghosh of The Quint commended her for playing the part with a "rare mix of innocence and jaw clenching seething anger". In the same year, she took on an extended cameo appearance in the Telugu-language period film "RRR", starring N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan. It emerged as the third highest-grossing Indian film. Upcoming projects. Bhatt will next star opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film "Brahmāstra", the first part in a planned trilogy, which took five years to film. She will reunite with Johar in his next directorial, the romantic comedy  Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, co-starring Ranveer Singh. She will also produce and star in the black comedy "Darlings", opposite Shefali Shah. Additionally, Bhatt will appear alongside Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan in the Netflix spy film "Heart of Stone", and alongside Priyanka Chopra and Katrina Kaif in Farhan Akhtar's buddy film "Jee Le Zaraa". Other work. Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in "Highway" (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song  Samjhawan, for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania". In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of "Udta Punjab", with her co-star Dosanjh. Bhatt has performed on stage at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various  cities of America for the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside Johar, the actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, and the singer Badshah. In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness on homeless animals. In 2017, she launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. Bhatt designed her own clothing brand for women in 2014 for the online fashion portal Jabong.com and in 2018, she launched her  own line of handbags for VIP Industries. Personal life and public image. In 2018, Bhatt began dating actor Ranbir Kapoor, her co-star in "Brahmāstra" (2022). She married him on 14 April 2022 in a traditional ceremony in Mumbai. "Forbes Asia" has featured Bhatt in their 30 Under 30 list of 2017 and in their 100 Digital Stars list of 2020. She has appeared in "Forbes India" Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the eighth position in 2019. That year, the magazine estimated her annual income to be and listed her as the highest-paid actress in the country . In 2018 and 2019, the Indian edition of "GQ" featured her among the nation's 50 most influential young people and credited her for "striking a balance between big-budget, all-star blowouts and more script-oriented films". Bhatt was listed in first place in "The Times of India"s "50 Most Desirable Women" list of 2018. In the same year, the market research firm YouGov named her India's ninth most influential celebrity. The magazine "Femina" has featured her in listings of women achievers in 2019 and 2021. In 2022, she was ranked in the 97th position in "The Indian  Express"s listing of the most powerful Indians. Bhatt is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. Duff & Phelps estimated her brand value to be US$36.5 million, in 2019, the eighth-highest of Indian celebrities. She occupied the seventh and sixth positions in the next two years, respectively, and in 2022, she peaked in the fourth position, with a brand value of US$68.1 million. Accolades. For her role in "Highway" (2014), Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. She also received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress  for her roles in "Udta Punjab" (2016), "Raazi" (2018) and "Gully Boy" (2019).