After legendary Amitabh Bachchan and singer Asha Bhosle, yet another ‘AB’ who is making Indian cinematic history is Alia Bhatt, with her versatile, intense performances. Like her eminent film-maker father Mahesh Bhatt, off-screen, the ‘Udta Punjab’ actress is spontaneous, witty yet outspoken. Based on a true story-novel, her upcoming film ‘Raazi’ directed by Meghna Gulzar (of ‘Talvar’ fame) has the exuberant Bhatt playing a young de-glam Kashmiri woman ‘Sehmat’ who is coaxed to ‘spy’ on Pakistani defence strategies during the 1971 Indo-Pak war. The chulbuli ‘Sehmat’marries a macho Pakistani Army officer (played by Vicky Kaushal) and carries out a series of daring missions, putting herself at constant risk.
How was it working with ‘perfectionist’ Madame Gulzar ? “A fabulous learning experience working with Meghna-ji. In fact, she is one of the most meticulous directors that I have worked with and her world feels so real and you are tugged right into it,” insists the ‘accident-prone’ bubbly Bhatt, who had to diligently train under experts to make her ‘Raazi’ character look authentic in the period film. “Besides watching a few retro-movies of to absorb that feel, I was coached for my local Urdu dialect , for the Morse code, driving a huge Jonga vehicle and for revolver-target shooting.
While firing from a revolver, I screamed in panic at the crew asking them to ‘move –out-and-away’. That’s when I was alerted, that it was only a ‘blank firearm’ with no bullets,” chuckles Alia, who has her real-life dignified actress-mother Soni Razdan as one of her co-stars in ‘Raazi’. Among Bhatt’s upcoming releases during this year, are Zoya Akhtar’s hip hop-theme musical Gully Boy (with co-star Ranveer Singh), Brahmastra and this period drama Kalank.
