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At first, we saw her in the role of the flimsy Shanaya Singhania in Karan Johar’s Student Of the Year, and then again on Koffee With Karan, where she failed to answer a simple general knowledge question. It was too easy to write her off as another star kid with no connection to the real world; except she bounced back from it all in a way so refreshing that nobody remembers or cares about their first impressions of her anymore. In the short span of time that we have known Alia Bhatt, she has made everybody’s jaws drop with her dramatic career graph. She has turned into this superb package of the naivete of a girl and the oomph of a woman. She has become a youth icon and we, at What She Likes, are not the least bit surprised. Here’s why:
1.Choice Of Roles:
Right from her second movie, Alia Bhatt has been taking on some rather challenging roles. The intense characters of Veera Tripathi, a lonely teenage girl who develops Stockholm Syndrome, in the movie, Highway, or the sexually abused drug addict from Udta Punjab have been portrayed beautifully by Alia. From her early 20s, she has played the characters of strong, grounded women such as Ananya Swaminathan from 2 States or Vaidehi Trivedi from Badrinath Ki Dulhania with effortless ease. In an interview with a reputed magazine, she said, “I’ve always loved to embody characters that have a positive impact on the audience and inspire little girls to grow up and aim to be brave, strong women.” And then, seeing her in more relatable roles such as Kaira of Dear Zindagi or Tia Malik of Kapoor & Sons led to us giving her a place in our hearts. In addition to this, she has been smart enough to balance these roles with commercially viable ones such as Kavya Pratap Singh in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. This, however, doesn’t ever let her get too comfortable, and she continues to outdo herself with more challenging roles. Recently her portrayal of the Indian spy, Sehmat Syed, in the movie Raazi left everyone speechless.
2.Versatility:
Alia Bhatt has been setting an example with her tremendous hard work. She hasn’t, however, limited herself to acting. She is infected with the typical need of a millennial to live spherically and achieve their maximum potential; but she fulfills this need with flair. When she crooned ‘Sooha Saaha’ for her movie, Highway, she won hearts all over the country with it. After that, she has given soulful renditions of the unplugged version of ‘Samjhawan’ in ‘Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania’ and a cover of ‘Ikk kudi’ in ‘Udta Punjab’. Along with this, Bhatt designed her own clothing brand for women in 2014 for the online fashion portal Jabong.com and in 2018, she launched her own line of handbags for VIP Industries.
3.Young Achiever:
Alia has been in the industry for a little over five years, but she has already proven herself to be a bankable star. At the age of 25, she already has two Filmfare Awards and many other awards conferred upon her by Stardust, Zee Cine Awards, Screen Awards, BIG Star Entertainment Awards and International Indian Film Academy gleaming on her shelf. In 2014, Star Box Office India gave her the befitting award of Ms. Game-Changer – Female actor who made massive strides in her career during the year. Alia has appeared in Forbes India’s Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the 21st position in 2017. That year, the magazine listed her as one of the highest-paid celebrities in the country. Also in 2017, Bhatt was featured by Forbes Asia in their 30 Under 30 list. By not choosing to fall back on her home production to build her career, Alia has risen to her success as a self-made woman.
4.Humanitarian work:
Along with being a talented, driven, hard-working individual, Alia Bhatt also has a side to her that cares for others and loves doing her bit to uplift the society. In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness on homeless animals. In 2017, she launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. Rising to an influential position and then handling it responsibly, using it for the good of others is something we should all aspire to.
5.The definition of cool:
Few people in the industry have taken ridicule in as cool a manner as Alia Bhatt has taken it. She has taught us the liberating power of being able to laugh at yourself, the joy that comes from not taking yourself too seriously. Along with this, she has also managed to master the art of staying cool in the face of controversy and giving it back to people in a sweet but straight manner. For instance, when people started talking about her cold-war with Parineeti Chopra and Shraddha Kapoor, instead of giving a statement, Alia opted for a smarter move and posted pictures of herself hanging out with Chopra and promoting Shraddha’s film.
6.Style Icon:
We can’t stop raving about Alia’s enviable dressing sense. In fact, her refreshingly original wardrobe choices won her the International Indian Film Academy special award for ‘Style Icon’, last year. This year, she also bagged the GQ Award for the most stylish woman of the year. When asked by a famous magazine about her definition of a best-dressed person, she said, “Somebody who stands out without trying too hard; who can combine looks with a certain ease, which is not ‘black heels, a bodycon dress, tight and fitted right here, and perfect hair’. That’s nice, but there has to be some personality, something interesting about the way the person dresses. Either the combination or the kind of clothes, keeping the trends in mind. Someone who basically understands their body, self, and clothes.” It’s inspiring to see someone in this industry who is comfortable in her own skin and not afraid to be herself.
It is inspiring to have such a young role model and we, at what She Likes, couldn’t be happier that Alia Bhatt has become a millennial icon. She is soaring and we are loving every bit of it.
