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Actor and producer Alia Bhatt has already featured in two of Indian cinema’s biggest hits this year (streaming phenomenon RRR, and as the eponymous gangster in Gangubai Kathiawadi) and is soon to add a third in Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva – the first film in a planned trilogy blending contemporary super-heroics and Indian mythology. Written and directed by Ayan Mukerji, Shiva is launching the ‘Astraverse’ – India’s answer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Bhatt stars as Isha, the love interest of Ranbir Kapoor’s Shiva, a DJ with the power to awaken an ancient weapon capable of destroying all creation. Relatively low stakes, then.
Bhatt can also be seen on Netflix currently in the darkly comic domestic abuse drama Darlings, which the actor also produced through her company Eternal Sunshine Productions, and is set to makes her English-language debut next year in Gal Gadot spy story Heart Of Stone. Total Film recently sat down with Bhatt to discuss her work on Brahmāstra, the surprise success of RRR and teaming up with Gadot. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
TF: Brahmāstra has been a long time coming. When did you shoot your first scene?
Alia Bhatt: In February 2018! It was a huge endeavour as it’s never been done before, this sort of vision, for Indian cinema. It’s a very intense journey. It’s an intense world. The stakes are really high. The situation’s they’re dealing with are extraordinary.
Did working at this scale take some getting used to?
Doing a film like Brahmāstra, or RRR, it’s extremely challenging. [In RRR] I’m speaking a completely new language. Here I’m part of a completely new world. Brahmāstra – was the first of its kind for us to shoot it, with so much VFX, and really get used to the idea of using the power of your imagination. Initially, it was really disorientating because it was just all blue screen everywhere. But I need to go to work and not have something easy to do. If it’s easy, then I’m bored out of my head and I want to go home.
You seem to have embraced action this year.
A box I hadn’t ticked before was doing an action film. I’m not beating anyone up here, really. This is a very different kind of action. If you’re stuck in a situation where there’s this darkness coming for you, and there are these bad guys, what do you do? How do you fight this? There were a couple of moments that I was very, very scared. I don’t know if there’s behind-the-scenes footage of me crying, maybe, while I have to drive this car in reverse, and make sure we got out in time [laughs] I was really, really nervous. But everything was done with the utmost safety.
RRR has been a surprise hit on Netflix around the world. Why do you think it’s connecting?
It’s doing so well in America in its original language, and in the Hindi language. It’s so amazing, that it’s totally connecting. I’ve always believed that language has nothing to do with it. The world has become a really small place. It’s like: “Make your content, and if it’s really good, it will cut across the world, and it will make an impact.” And that’s what we hope to do with a film like Brahmāstra as well, because it has a potential to connect purely on the basis of its originality and the soul of the story.
How did Heart Of Stone come about?
I’ve wanted to tick that box for some time now – making my English-language debut. It’s a very rare opportunity, because you get to reinvent yourself, and start a new story. It’s like I’m making my debut all over again. I read the script and I just loved the character. I loved how important she was in the storyline. I loved that it was headlined by Gal Gadot, who’s such an inspiring female star, and she’s trying to do this really ambitious project by creating her own action franchise. And she’s so good at that. So I was like, “Wow, I would get a chance to work with her!” So I really enjoyed that part of it.
Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva opens in cinemas on 9 September. Heart Of Stone does not currently have a release date. For more, check out the 50 best Bollywood movies of all time.
