Alia Bhatt said that despite films being a part of her DNA, she didn’t watch her family’s films while growing up and revealed the reason behind the same.
Alia Bhatt has managed to make a mark on her own with stellar performances in films like Highway, Udta Punjab, Raazi, Gully Boy, Darlings and many others in her career spanning a decade. More recently, the actress even bagged a National Award for her film Gangubai Kathiawadi in which she essayed the titular role.
Despite hailing from an illustrious film family, Alia in a new interview with Elle magazine, revealed that she refrained from watching her parents’ films while growing up.
Explaining the reason behind the same, she said, “Honestly, I was very sensitive as a child and I took the films too seriously. I didn’t want to see my mother being pushed out of a window or see her suffering. That wasn’t something I wanted to engage with.”
The actress even didn’t watch her father Mahesh Bhatt’s films as she felt they were too gritty for her age at that time. However, she did enjoyed watching her step sister Pooja Bhatt’s work as they were those ‘cutesy romantic stuff’ that she could handle.
Alia said that long before she understood what her family did for work, she had the ‘bone of a performer’.
“I liked what I saw coming from the television box—the people dancing around and making faces at each other. I thought it might be nice to be inside that box one day,” the actress shared with the publication.
Alia admitted that she is aware of her privilege when it comes to her career and talked about how her journey in showbiz is much easier as compared to that of her parents.
Speaking about her mother Soni Razdan, she said, “My mother came from nowhere and didn’t know how she was going to make it. She had no connection to films and went from theaters to film studios to television studios to audition. She also couldn’t speak Hindi well, so that was difficult for her. She never became a mainstream heroine. But she worked very hard. People say you just need to work hard and you’ll make it, but that’s not true.”
The actress said that her mother took up every acting opportunity that came her way irrespective of the medium as she believed that no job was too small.
The ‘Brahmastra’ actress said, “I think that’s really something I took away. It made a big impact on me; she made me aware of how fortunate I am early on.”
She added that her mother was always preparing her for her journey in films.
“Either for rejection or for what people will always be saying about you,” she says. “She kind of ingrained all this into me, and it was from her own experience,” the magazine quoted her as saying.
Alia said that her father Mahesh Bhatt too had his share of struggles in the film industry.
The Bollywood star said, “He had a bunch of flops at one point; he barely had any money, and he was battling an addiction to alcohol. He eventually gave up drinking, but things were still very up and down with his life and work. My parents struggled to get to a point where I could enjoy their privilege. I do recognize that. If tomorrow I don’t do well and I stop getting films, I’ll still always acknowledge the fact that I got such great opportunities, so I can never really complain.”
Speaking about films, Alia Bhatt recently announced her next project- Jigra helmed by Vasan Bala.
