THE ALLURE OF ALIA

SHE ALWAYS KNEW SHE WAS BORN TO BE A STAR. NOW, THE WORLD KNOWS IT TOO. ALIA BHATT HAS ARRIVED, AND HOW

- SUHANI SINGH

It’s a Sunday afternoon on Floor #1 of Mehboob Studios, and Alia Bhatt is biting into multiple bars of Perk. Dressed in white vest, sunshine yellow bomber jacket and denims, you could mistake the 29-year-old for a teen. Except that we are in the presence of ‘India’s new acting superstar’, a term India Today had first coined for her now boyfriend of five years, Ranbir Kapoor, in 2013. That label sits well on Alia too today, but then, she, as always, likes to play it cool. “I have to observe, without it seeming like acting,” she says, of her Perk shoot, but it may well be her life’s credo. The chocolate is one of 23 brands the actor currently endorses. There cannot be a better fit for their brand, believes Monosij Bandyopadhyay, category marketing manager, chocolates, at Mondelez International, given her “girl-next-door image” and “immense popularity with teens and young adults”.

One such admirer happens to be on set. Twenty-four-year-old actor Deep Jangid beams as he is introduced to his co-star, Alia. He recently watched Gangubai Kathiawadi in cinemas, and it has left him a fan of ‘Alia Ma’am’. “Do you think I can ask her for a photograph?” he asks, after the shoot wraps.

Petite in frame, Alia can appear larger than life on screen. It’s hard to take your eyes off her in Gangubai…, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s biopic of the mafia queen of Kamatipura. She fills the screen with her presence, and her raspy delivery of dialogue speaks of an assuredness that comes naturally to seasoned actors.