Alia Bhatt

Alia Bhatt (; born 15 March 1993) is a British actress of Indian descent who predominantly works in Hindi films. Known for her portrayals of women in challenging circumstances, she has received several accolades, including a National Film Award and seven Filmfare Awards. She is one of India's highest-paid actresses. Time awarded her with the Time100 Impact Award in 2022 and named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2024.

Born into the Bhatt family, she is a daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. After making her acting debut as a child in the 1999 thriller film Sangharsh, she played her first leading role in Karan Johar's teen film 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 romantic films produced by Johar's studio Dharma Productions.

Bhatt won Filmfare Awards for Best Actress for playing a victim of drug abuse in the crime drama Udta Punjab (2016), an undercover spy in the thriller Raazi (2018), a possessive girlfriend in the musical drama Gully Boy (2019), and the title role of a prostitute in the biopic Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022). The last of these also earned her the National Film Award for Best Actress. She expanded to film production with the black comedy Darlings (2022) and had her biggest commercial success in the fantasy film Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva (2022) and the romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023). The last of these earned her a fifth Best Actress award at Filmfare, followed by a record-setting sixth for her performance in the action thriller Jigra (2024), which she also co-produced.

In addition to acting, Bhatt supports various charities and is an investor and prominent brand endorser. She founded an ecological initiative, CoExist, in 2017, a production company, Eternal Sunshine Productions, in 2019, and a sustainable clothing brand, Ed-a-Mamma, in 2022. Bhatt has sung eight of her film songs, including the single "Samjhawan Unplugged" in 2014. She is married to actor Ranbir Kapoor, with whom she has a daughter.

Early life and background

Bhatt was born into the Bhatt family on 15 March 1993 in Bombay (known by Mumbai since 1995), Maharashtra, India. She is a daughter of Indian filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and British actress Soni Razdan. Mahesh is of Gujarati descent, while Soni is of Kashmiri-Pandit and German descent. Bhatt holds British citizenship. She is a granddaughter of producer-director Nanabhai Bhatt. She has an elder sister, Shaheen, and two half-siblings, Pooja and Rahul Bhatt. Actor Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are Bhatt's paternal cousins, while producer Mukesh Bhatt is her uncle. Educated at the Jamnabai Narsee School in the Mumbai suburb of Juhu, Bhatt dropped out of twelfth grade to pursue acting.

Describing her childhood, Bhatt 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, Bhatt was not close with Mahesh; Soni has said that she raised her children mostly as a single parent as Mahesh did not take much interest in their lives; Bhatt has said that, as a child, she "didn't miss him as such because I did not really have him", adding that they developed a closer bond only when she became an actress.

Bhatt aspired to act from a young age, saying that she first realised her interest while rehearsing for the school choir in kindergarten. She soon began dance lessons at Shiamak Davar's institute. Bhatt's first acting role was at the age of five in Mahesh's production venture Sangharsh (1999), in which she briefly played the younger version of Preity Zinta's character. Talking about her experience, Bhatt later remarked that she did not remember much of it. At the age of nine, she auditioned for a role in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film Black (2005), but did not get the part. Three years later, Bhansali cast Bhatt opposite Ranbir Kapoor, ten years her senior, to make their debuts in the former's film Balika Vadhu, which was shelved.

Career

Early work and breakthrough (2012–2015)

Bhatt had her first leading role in 2012 with Karan Johar's Student of the Year, alongside newcomers Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast by Johar on the condition that she lose 16 kg (35 lb), which she did in three months. She played a sophisticated teenage girl involved in a love triangle. Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times mentioned similarities between her character and Kareena Kapoor's role 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,” finding her "inelegant in the dance numbers" and her "expressions [to be] limited.” The film grossed ₹960 million (US$11 million) at the box office, becoming a commercial success.

Dismayed by the critical response to Student of the Year, Bhatt was keen to play a challenging role. She found it in Imtiaz Ali's coming-of-age film Highway (2014), in which she starred as a young woman from a wealthy family who, after being abducted, develops Stockholm syndrome towards her captor (played by Randeep Hooda). 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 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, though Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and also gained a Best Actress nomination at the ceremony. Also that year, she led Going Home, a short film directed by Vikas Bahl for Vogue India to promote women's safety.

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 novel of the same name, 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 "easy and fresh and natural.” She played a girl who has an affair before her wedding, in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, directed by Shashank Khaitan. It 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 ₹1 billion (US$12 million) worldwide. The box-office performances of her films in 2014 established her career.

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.” The film did not perform well commercially.