Audiences who have watched Karan Johar’s latest campus-rom-com venture ‘Student of the Year’ (SOTY) are all praise for the three young lead debutantes Varun Dhawan, Siddharth and Alia who are making waves. Especially Alia Bhatt who plays the dainty, bubbly yet vivacious Shanaya in SOTY.
Ironically, Alia who happens to be the prolific film-maker Mukesh Bhatt’s niece and the maverick director Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter, opted to make her screen debut in an ‘outside’ banner, instead of her home production. The exuberant Alia explains: “Had I wished, I could have easily been launched by my family banner. But I also wanted to test my caliber at acting and be selected on merit. It would also allow me to gain the experience of working with an outside prestigious banner (Dharma) and an acclaimed director like Karan Johar. Today, after the release of SOTY, both my parents (Mahesh and Soni Razdan-Bhatt) and my uncle (Mukesh) are proud of me,” shrugs the Bhatt babe.
Refuting speculation that gettting selected for SOTY was easy, Alia counters, “They had screen-tested hundreds of aspirants from various metros. Like how they have the rigorous elimination process and I was short-listed among the final 10 contenders for Shanaya’s role. Eventually, amidst tough competition I was singled out only after I gave my screen test. But then I had to lose weight as I had that tubby, chubby look,” smiles Alia.