Last year, she completed a glorious five years in Bollywood, and the sixth year started off on a “super busy note” for Alia Bhatt. But she is clearly not complaining. “I always want my working atmosphere to be a happy one,” says the actor, as she gears up for the release of her next, Raazi. She also talks about her working style, link-up rumours and more.
Thank God, my manager takes care of my date diary (laughs). But it is a crazy time for me. This is the most that I have worked continuously. I have worked every day since January without even a single day off. But I am not complaining as it’s a new kind of time for me. I am learning a lot about myself, my work, and I am understanding new things as well as meeting new people too. We are just in the fifth month of 2018 but it feels I have already gone through the whole year. It’s all going very fast but also slow in a way. The difficult part is switching between the characters. Fortunately, I have finished Gully Boy so, now I just have Brahmastra and Kalank but they both are in very different worlds. I just wish my directors lots of love and luck to handle this kind of a mess (laughs).
I feel a film is made up of many characters, so it is not just me. But yes, one can say that Raazi is my solo film of sorts after some time. I would not say that it’s completely my film. It is very difficult without your co-actors to bring a character to life. Also, it has been a while since my last film (Badrinath Ki Dulhania; 2017) released, so I am a little nervous because I have never done such a film. There is no reference to do such a film. But the nervousness is there, regardless of a film being big, difficult or small. I will always be nervous but it’s a different kind of nervousness.
I don’t know for sure but I think it does. I am feeling very tired, but not because of the physical aspects [of a character] but because every character that I am playing is quite layered. For instance, my part in Kalank is also quite difficult. I did not realise it initially, when I started shooting for it. But then, I was like, ‘it’s so difficult. Why am I struggling?’ On the second day, I gave 11 takes for one shot which has not happened with me for a long time. So I choose my characters thinking, ‘yeh kuch alag hoga but it’s like apne pair par kulhaadi maarna’. After this year is over, I just want to have fun and maybe do a nonsensical part with no hectic, stressful and layered work (laughs).
Alia Bhatt takes part in a promotional event for the forthcoming Hindi film Raazi directed by Meghna Gulzar in Mumbai. (AFP)
In an earlier interview, you said that a 20-something isn’t always a poster girl of pure positivity and constant joy…
You know, I always try and remain positive but at the same time, I also feel, ‘why should the world feel your internal struggles?’ I want my working atmosphere to be a happy one. I want to only give love and positivity. But neither am I always happy nor I am permanently positive. I am constantly paranoid, worried from time to time, under confident and insecure as well. I don’t think these are bad emotions. There is a certain perception that you always need to be happy. I am totally against that. For me, happiness is not an emotion, but moments. I think happiness has been defined all wrong for us. Happiness doesn’t mean you have to be constantly giggling, smiling and laughing.
I am a very positive and happy person. I certainly believe in the better things in life. But it does not mean that I don’t have bad moments. It’s okay if I don’t laugh too much on a certain day. To put it correctly, I like being warm and that’s my vibe. I can be sad but still be warm. So, I would rather be warm, cozy and comfy. Happiness is overrated.
More than others, I have high expectations from myself. So, it never weighs me down. I won’t use the word ‘critical’, but I am quite objective about when I am killing it and when I am not. When I watch my film, I don’t think, ‘oh, I wish I had done it better’. I only judge what’s good and what’s not or what’s great and what is average, to be aware that I will be able to do it better the next time.
Meanwhile, Alia has made no attempt to hide her admiration for Ranbir. When Alia was gearing up to make a splash in Bollywood, she had shouted from the rooftops that she had a massive crush on Ranbir, and had even expressed her desire to marry him. And it looks like nothing has changed. In an interview with India Today Television last month, Alia called him her "biggest crush of all time".
