Alia Bhatt, is the most promising young actor that Bollywood has. She is what one would call a bankable star. She’s young, fearless and has an infectious chirpiness. She’s not only created a huge name for herself at such a young age but is on her way to becoming one of the youngest producers too!
But for now, all Alia has in mind is her soon to be released film, Kalank, where she plays a character she has never played before. She tells us she is very excited, but not at all nervous about the release. We don’t see any reason for her to be either, as she has outdone herself in this film.
In a candid conversation with Hot Friday Talks, Alia tells us what it took to play Roop in Kalank and more.
About preparing for her role as Roop for Kalank and the importance of dance and songs in films
I did one year of basic Kathak training and I did two and a half months of learning basic choreography.I practiced it everyday relentlessly.I am very excited, I have never done anything like this. Yes, it’s important to see all shades of an actor, including dance in our industry because song and dance play such a big role in our films.Someone told me that of course the characters you play will be remembered, but it’s the song that live the longest because that’s how people connect with it immediately. In this film, it was a semiclassical and classical form of song and dance. A unique kind of track in today’s times. I am happy to do it and that’s why it was very important that I do it very well. I feel that I have done at least better than what I have done before.
On doing her first costume drama
Doing a costume drama is very difficult. It doesn’t come to me naturally to sit like that gracefully, walk that way, all the jewellery etc. There is a shot in the trailer where I am walking down the stairs towards Varun who is on a boat, I kept telling Abhishek how can we stand on the boat and not fall! We had to give those expressions while somebody was holding the boat from below, so that we don’t fall! Then another instruction Abhishek had given me, was to walk down the stairs, without looking at the stairs. I was like how am I supposed to do that with the heavy lehenga that I was wearing. What I mean to say is that, there were these many larger than life things happening and we had to make it look convincing without making it seem like we were putting in so much effort.
About how she chooses her scripts
I don’t look for anything in particular, sometimes I do look with a certain director and then I get that opportunity, I also like the script and then I go ahead and do it. While sometimes a film comes to me suddenly, unexpectedly and I don’t expect to like it but I like it, so basically it’s random moments. I keep meeting everybody, speaking to people, you never know what comes up and when an actor really wants to do a film, you really make it happen.
On memorising lengthy dialogues
I am obsessed with memorising dialogues and I ask for the dialogues one month in advance. I also like switching on and switching off between my takes, while I am giving my take, I am not really thinking about my lines since it’s flowing. Many times my directors pull my leg and tell me they’ve changed the lines and I get worked up because I learn the lines very well, like a good student. I get really thrown off if they are improvising and Varun is constantly improvising, and I get very irritated with him.
Speaking about her production company, Eternal Sunshine Productions
Under my banner, I want to make films that I believe in and probably be a part of most of the time and maybe sometimes not. I would like to be a creative producer not the line producer. I thought of starting my own production house many times in my life and there is no better time than now.
An apt name for a production house run by someone who lights up the screen with eternal sunshine! Here’s wishing Alia the very best for Kalank and her production house.
