Quickly
Socially
Trending
Crypto
Alia Bhatt turns 25 today. On behalf of the entire Latestly desk, we wish the talented actress, who has gone beyond the tag of 'starkid' with some exemplary performances, A Very Happy Birthday!
Born in 1993 to director Mahesh Bhatt and his second wife and actress Soni Razdan, Alia Bhatt is the younger of the two siblings, the elder being Shaheen. She is also the half-sister of actress-director Pooja Bhatt, while Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are her cousins. Alia Bhatt had an amazing launchpad in 2012 with Student of the Year, that was directed by Karan Johar. She was launched along with Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra in the movie. All the three went on to have successful careers ahead.
However, when compared to her male co-debutantes, Alia received less glowing reviews for her debut as many felt her performance was stiff and her character lacked depth. Then came her second movie, Highway, directed by Imtiaz Ali, that made us see her in a new light. We realised Alia is not just a pretty face; there is quite the potential in her to be the next best thing in the industry. With her subsequent releases, Alia proved that her performance in Highway was no flash in the pan, delivering fine acts in 2 States, Kapoor & Sons, Dear Zindagi, Badrinath Ki Dulhania and of course, Udta Punjab. There have been mishaps in between, like Shaandaar, but that has not stopped Alia from being at the top of her game.
On the occasion of her birthday, we look at some seven interesting and lesser-known facts about the actress that you should probably know if you call yourself her fan.
Baby Preity Zinta
Student of the Year was not technically Alia's debut, as she made her start in Bollywood playing little Preity Zinta in the movie, Sangharsh. We saw the spark quite early, only we recognised it a decade later!
From Flab to Fab
Alia was nicknamed Aloo (potato) as a child, because she was quite chubby. When she auditioned among the 400 girls for SOTY, Karan had asked her to shed weight. She did, losing 16 kgs in the process and bagged the role. The rest, as they say, is history!
Only SOTY debutante to be directed by KJo twice
Alia also had the luck to be the only main debutante in SOTY to be directed by her mentor, Karan Johar twice. She had a cameo as a DJ in Karan's last flick, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, though it was not exactly a memorable one.
She was in Ugly. Ya missed her!
Alia Bhatt has a blink-and-you-miss cameo in Anurag Kashyap's gritty thriller that went uncredited. She played the younger version of her aunt Tejaswini Kolhapure's character in the movie.
A dancer, a singer and a painter!
Like her Udta Punjab co-star Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt had trained in dancing from Shiamak Davar’s Academy. She had also trained herself in music under the tutelage of none other than A R Rahman himself, making her singing debut with Sooha Saha in Highway. She also makes paintings with charcoal and loves paintball. As per certain articles in fashion magazines, she prefers wearing men's fragrances over women's!
Technically, not Indian!
Yup, you read it right! According to certain reports, Alia Bhatt holds a British passport. Even her Wikipedia page calls her a British citizen. She herself confirmed this when she had revealed, "Unfortunately, I can’t vote because I have a British passport. I am past the date (to get the official documents for voting) this time around, but I will try and get my voting card the next time once I get my dual citizenship." Well, dear Alia, we think that's never gonna happen because Indian constitution doesn't allow dual citizenship. Just ask Akshay Kumar, who holds a Canadian passport!
Her crushes and competitors
In some of her interviews, Alia Bhatt had revealed she had major crushes on Shah Rukh Khan, Shahid Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor, and interestingly, she has worked with all of them. She is a huge admirer of Kareena Kapoor Khan, while she considers Kangana Ranaut as the ultimate fashion icon. Among her peers, she considers Parineeti Chopra as her biggest competitor.
Alia Bhatt will be seen next in the spy thriller, Raazi, where she will be directed by Meghna Gulzar. She also has two huge projects in hand - Ayan Mukerji's fantasy adventure Brahmastra with Ranbir and Amitabh Bachchan, and Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy with Ranveer Singh. She also has a cameo in Shah Rukh Khan's Zero where she plays herself.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 15, 2018 12:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Google Trends
