Alia Bhatt
Alia Bhatt

Alia Bhatt

Alia Bhatt (born 15 March 1993) is an Indian actress and model who appears in Bollywood films. Born into a family where her parents, Mahesh Bhatt and Soni Razdan, and elder sister Pooja Bhatt were actors and filmmakers, Bhatt made her acting debut at the age of 19 with Karan Johar 's Student Of The Year (2012), which was a moderate box-office commercial success.

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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 troubling circumstances, she has received several accolades, including a National Film Award and six Filmfare Awards. One of India's highest-paid actresses, she has appeared in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list since 2014 and was awarded the Time100 Impact Award in 2022.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 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 titular 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 record-tying fifth Best Actress award at Filmfare.In addition to acting, Bhatt has launched her own sustainable clothing brand, Ed-a-Mamma, and an ecological initiative, CoExist. She supports various charities, and is an investor and prominent brand endorser. She has sung seven of her film songs, including the single "Samjhawan Unplugged" in 2014. Bhatt is married to the actor Ranbir Kapoor, with whom she has a daughter.

Early life and background

Alia Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 in India. She was born into the Bhatt family to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and British actress Soni Razdan. Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother is of Kashmiri Pandit and British 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. She was educated at the Jamnabai Narsee School but dropped out of her twelfth grade to pursue 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 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, and has said that she first realised her interest 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, she later remarked, "I don't remember much of the shoot. I would go to the sets only for the food". At age 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 a then-12-year old Bhatt opposite a then-20-year old Ranbir Kapoor to make their debuts in his film ''Balika Vadhu'', but the film was shelved.

Early life

See also: List of Hindi film clans § Bhatt_family

Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) 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. Director Nanabhai Bhatt is her paternal grandfather. She has an elder sister, Shaheen (born 1988) and two half-siblings, Pooja Bhatt 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 in Mumbai. She holds British citizenship.
Bhatt's first acting role was as a child artist in Sangharsh (1999), starring Akshay Kumar and Preity Zinta where she played the younger version of Zinta's character.

Career

She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast by Johar on the condition that she lose , 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 (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". The film 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. She found it in Imtiaz Ali's road 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 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, though 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 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 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'', directed by Shashank Khaitan, which 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 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. She 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." She 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 her 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.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 to that point. ''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. 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". She portrayed the titular prostitute in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's biopic ''Gangubai Kathiawadi'' (2022), 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". It emerged as her third release to gross over worldwide. ''The Guardian'' featured her portrayal in their listing of the best big-screen performances of all time, and she was awarded with her fourth Best Actress award at Filmfare in addition to the National Film Award for Best Actress (shared with Kriti Sanon for ''Mimi'').In the same year, Bhatt took on a brief role in the Telugu-language period film ''RRR'', starring N. T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan. Even though she learnt to speak her lines in the language, a dubbing artist eventually voiced her lines. It emerged as the third highest-grossing Indian film of all time. She next starred as a victim of domestic abuse in the Netflix black comedy film ''Darlings'', which marked her first production venture under her company Eternal Sunshine Productions. Namrata Joshi found her to be "perfectly at home in the role of an ordinary Mumbai chawl girl". The film became the most watched Indian film globally in its opening weekend on Netflix, and won her the Filmfare OTT Award for Best Actress in a Web Original Film. In her final release of 2022, Bhatt starred opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film ''Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva''. The first part in a planned trilogy, the film took five years to film. Made on a production and marketing budget of around , the film is one of the most expensive Indian films. Simon Abrams of the TheWrap bemoaned that Bhatt had been underused in a poorly written part, and disliked her chemistry with Kapoor. It earned to rank as the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2022.Bhatt reunited with Johar for his directorial, the romantic comedy ''Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani'' (2023), co-starring Ranveer Singh. Filming and release were delayed by a few months due to her pregnancy. Praising her look in the film, WION's Shomini Sen believed that Bhatt had improved upon a predictable character. Earning over worldwide, it emerged as one of the year's highest-grossing Hindi films. She won her fifth Best Actress award at Filmfare, tying the record for most wins in the category with Nutan and Kajol. Bhatt expanded to American cinema in the same year with ''Heart of Stone'', a Netflix spy film co-starring Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan. Playing a villainous computer hacker, she performed her career's first action sequences whilst pregnant. Critics panned the film; IndieWire's Kate Erbland wrote that Bhatt "sells a role that is thinly written to the point of insult".Bhatt will continue her collaborations with Dharma Productions with ''Jigra'', a thriller which she will also co-produce under Eternal Sunshine.

Early life and work (1993–2012)

Alia Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) 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.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".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 ₹960 million (US$13 million) at the box office, becoming a commercial success.

Early work (2012–2015)

She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast by Johar on the condition that she lose , 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 (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". The film 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. She found it in Imtiaz Ali's road 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 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, though 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 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 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'', directed by Shashank Khaitan, which 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 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.

Establishing as a leading lady (2014–2015)

Dismayed by the critical response to Student of the Year, Bhatt was keen to play a better role. Following a year-long absence from the screen, similar to that of co-stars Malhotra and Dhawan, she found an opportunity with Imtiaz Ali's road film Highway (2014), in which 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 also 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, fellow-produced by Highway producer Sajid Nadiadwala, and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (both 2014). The former was an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's novel of the same name, and revolves 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 the language 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 in a distinct first for the studio. Starring Dhawan in the titular role of a flirtatious Punjabi boy Rakesh, the film was described as a tribute to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) by Johar, and also marked the debut of television actor Siddharth Shukla. 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$13 million) worldwide. Accomplishments through 2014 established Bhatt as a successful actress in Bollywood.

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.

Career progression (2016–2021)

She 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." She 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 her 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.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 to that point. ''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. 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".

Continued success and accolades (2016–2018)

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 in her career with the exception of Highway, 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 project—the 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.

Established actress (2022–present)

She portrayed the titular prostitute in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's biopic ''Gangubai Kathiawadi'' (2022), 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". It emerged as her third release to gross over worldwide. ''The Guardian'' featured her portrayal in their listing of the best big-screen performances of all time, and she was awarded with her fourth Best Actress award at Filmfare in addition to the National Film Award for Best Actress (shared with Kriti Sanon for ''Mimi'').In the same year, Bhatt took on a brief role in the Telugu-language period film ''RRR'', starring N. T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan. Even though she learnt to speak her lines in the language, a dubbing artist eventually voiced her lines. It emerged as the third highest-grossing Indian film of all time. She next starred as a victim of domestic abuse in the Netflix black comedy film ''Darlings'', which marked her first production venture under her company Eternal Sunshine Productions. Namrata Joshi found her to be "perfectly at home in the role of an ordinary Mumbai chawl girl". The film became the most watched Indian film globally in its opening weekend on Netflix, and won her the Filmfare OTT Award for Best Actress in a Web Original Film. In her final release of 2022, Bhatt starred opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film ''Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva''. The first part in a planned trilogy, the film took five years to film. Made on a production and marketing budget of around , the film is one of the most expensive Indian films. Simon Abrams of the TheWrap bemoaned that Bhatt had been underused in a poorly written part, and disliked her chemistry with Kapoor. It earned to rank as the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2022.Bhatt reunited with Johar for his directorial, the romantic comedy ''Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani'' (2023), co-starring Ranveer Singh. Filming and release were delayed by a few months due to her pregnancy. Praising her look in the film, WION's Shomini Sen believed that Bhatt had improved upon a predictable character. Earning over worldwide, it emerged as one of the year's highest-grossing Hindi films. She won her fifth Best Actress award at Filmfare, tying the record for most wins in the category with Nutan and Kajol. Bhatt expanded to American cinema in the same year with ''Heart of Stone'', a Netflix spy film co-starring Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan. Playing a villainous computer hacker, she performed her career's first action sequences whilst pregnant. Critics panned the film; IndieWire's Kate Erbland wrote that Bhatt "sells a role that is thinly written to the point of insult".Bhatt will continue her collaborations with Dharma Productions with ''Jigra'', a thriller which she will also co-produce under Eternal Sunshine.

Gully Boy and beyond (2019–present)

Bhatt launched her own production company named Eternal Sunshine Productions in early 2019, with a newfound aim on fresh, relatable and non-conformist stories. Her first appearance in the year came with a pivotal role 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 ₹2.37 billion (US$31 million), 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 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, alongside a cast comprising Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Dear Zindagi guest-costar Aditya Roy Kapur and Sanjay Dutt. 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 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".Bhatt's upcoming projects include a starring role opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film trilogy, the first of which is named Brahmāstra. She will appear alongside N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan in the Telugu-language period film RRR, and will portray the titular gangster and madam of a Kamathipura brothel in Gangubai Kathiawadi, a biographical film from Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Bhatt has also committed to star opposite Ranveer Singh in the romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani directed by Karan Johar. She will also produce and star in the black comedy Darlings, opposite Shefali Shah.

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.Bhatt supports various causes and charitable organisations. She took part in a campaign for PETA in 2013 to raise awareness on homeless animals. She joined a charity fundraiser in 2015 organised by Cuddles Foundation for cancer-stricken children, and in 2017, she walked the ramp to support the cause. Also in 2017, she launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The initiative launched a denim donation drive that year, to make dog collars from discarded denims. Bhatt collaborated with Facebook for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. In 2018, Bhatt joined Aamir Khan's Paani Foundation; she visited Latur, a village in Maharashtra, and helped Khan with on-ground watershed management work. In 2018, Bhatt joined Aamir Khan's Paani Foundation; she visited Latur, a village in Maharashtra, and helped Khan with on-ground watershed management work. She also launched an initiative named Mi Wardrobe is Su Wardrobe (MiSu), through which she auctioned clothes from her personal wardrobe to provide electricity to a village in Karnataka. Bhatt collaborated with the Indian arm of the NGO ActionAid in 2021 to provide essentials to underprivileged communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, she became the first actress from India to partner with the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group for their "I'm a Fan" campaign, through which she raised funds for the Salaam Bombay Foundation, which helps underprivileged adolescents. Under MiSu, Bhatt sold the saris she wore in her film ''Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani'' (2023) to raise funds for women's healthcare.Bhatt designed her own clothing line for women in 2014 for the online fashion portal Jabong.com and in 2018, she launched her own line of handbags for VIP Industries. She is also an investor in the beauty company Nykaa and in India's first biomaterial startup Phool.co. In 2022, she launched her own sustainable maternity and children's clothing brand, named Ed-a-Mamma. As of July 2023, the company has an estimated valuation of . In September that year, Reliance Retail acquired a majority stake of 51% in the company.

Other work and media image

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.In 2017, Bhatt was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list. She has appeared in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the eighth position in 2019. That year, the magazine estimated her annual income to be ₹592.1 million (US$7.9 million) 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.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 2018, the eighth highest of Indian celebrities.

Personal life

This criticism has extended to Johar, who often praises her publicly and casts her in most of his productions; their critics believe that this favouritism comes at the cost of opportunities for other actresses. Johar defended his admiration of Bhatt by saying that he feels parental towards her. During an appearance on Johar's talk show ''Koffee with Karan'' in 2014, Bhatt incorrectly named Prithviraj Chavan as the President of India. This led to widespread trolling of Bhatt's IQ, which journalist Malavika Sangghvi described as an extension of the dumb blonde stereotype. During an appearance on Johar's talk show ''Koffee with Karan'' in 2014, Bhatt incorrectly named Prithviraj Chavan as the President of India. This led to widespread trolling of Bhatt's IQ, which journalist Malavika Sangghvi described as an extension of the dumb blonde stereotype. Bhatt countered this by acting in a satirical YouTube video for All India Bakchod, named ''Alia Bhatt - Genius of the Year''. Sangghvi noted that by making fun of herself, Bhatt had "managed to counter all her critics and, in fact, endear herself to them".Early in her career, Bhatt was reluctant to discuss her personal life, stating that she would never publicly talk about her relationships. Despite media speculation, she did not speak about dating actor Sidharth Malhotra, but spoke fondly about their bond in 2019, after they had broken up. In 2018, Ranbir Kapoor, her co-star in ''Brahmāstra'', revealed that he and Bhatt were dating. They married on 14 April 2022 in a traditional Hindu ceremony at their apartment in Mumbai. On 6 November that year, she gave birth to their daughter. As of 2022, Bhatt lives primarily in Mumbai, and also has a home in London. In 2023, she called out two paparazzi photographers for invading her privacy by clicking pictures of her in her living room from an adjoining building.

Works and awards

Bhatt won the National Film Award for Best Actress for ''Gangubai Kathiawadi'' (2022). She received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress a record-tying five times for her roles in ''Udta Punjab'' (2016), ''Raazi'' (2018), ''Gully Boy'' (2019), ''Gangubai Kathiawadi'' (2022) and ''Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani'' (2023), in addition to the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for ''Highway'' (2014). She has also won the Filmfare OTT Award for Best Actress in a Web Original Film for ''Darlings'' (2022).
Source: Wikipedia

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