Alia Bhatt

Alia Bhatt (born 15 March 1993) is a British actress of Indian descent who predominantly works in Hindi films.

Known for her portrayals of women in troubling circumstances, she has received several accolades, including a National Film Award and six Filmfare Awards.

Alia Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 in India.

She was born into the Bhatt family to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and British actress Soni Razdan.

Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother is of Kashmiri Pandit and British German ancestry.

She holds British citizenship.

She has an elder sister, Shaheen, and two half-siblings, Pooja and Rahul Bhatt.

Actor Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are her paternal cousins, while producer Mukesh Bhatt is her uncle.

She was educated at the Jamnabai Narsee School but dropped out of her twelfth grade to pursue acting.

Describing her childhood, Bhatt has said, "I had a rather grounded and modest upbringing. I didn't get the pleasures that people assume I would've got because I am Mahesh Bhatt's daughter."

Growing up, she did not share a close bond with her father; Razdan has said that she raised her children mostly as a single parent as her husband did not take much interest in their lives.

Bhatt has said that as a child, she "didn't miss him as such because I did not really have him", adding that they developed a closer bond only when she became an actress.

Bhatt aspired to act from a young age, and has said that she first realised her interest while rehearsing for the school choir in kindergarten.

She soon began dance lessons at Shiamak Davar's institute.

After making her acting debut as a child in the 1999 thriller Sangharsh, she played her first leading role in Karan Johar's teen film Student of the Year (2012).

Her first acting role was at age five in her father's production venture Sangharsh (1999), in which she briefly played the younger version of Preity Zinta's character.

Talking about her experience, she later remarked, "I don't remember much of the shoot. I would go to the sets only for the food".

Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times mentioned similarities between her character and Kareena Kapoor's role in Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), but noted that her performance was "without the killer attitude".

Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter dismissed her as "a washout. Not only is she inelegant in the dance numbers, but her expressions are limited; and the digital retouching of her face throughout the film is a distraction".

The film grossed inr 960000000 at the box office, becoming a commercial success.

Dismayed by the critical response to Student of the Year, Bhatt was keen to play a better role.

At age nine, she auditioned for a role in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film Black (2005), but did not get the part.

Three years later, Bhansali cast a then-12-year old Bhatt opposite a then-20-year old Ranbir Kapoor to make their debuts in his film Balika Vadhu, but the film was shelved.

Bhatt had her first leading role in 2012 with Karan Johar's teen film Student of the Year, alongside newcomers Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan.

She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast by Johar on the condition that she lose 16 kg, which she did in three months.

She played a sophisticated teenage girl involved in a love triangle.

One of India's highest-paid actresses, she has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2014 and was awarded the Time100 Impact Award in 2022.

Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan.

She won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for playing a kidnapping victim in the road drama Highway (2014), and went on to establish herself with starring roles in several romantic films produced by Johar's studio Dharma Productions.

She has sung seven of her film songs, including the single "Samjhawan Unplugged" in 2014.

Bhatt is married to the actor Ranbir Kapoor, with whom she has a daughter.

She found it in Imtiaz Ali's road film Highway (2014), in which she starred as a young woman from a wealthy family who, after being abducted, develops Stockholm syndrome towards her captor (played by Randeep Hooda).

She took diction lessons to improve her Hindi, and was challenged by the emotional and physical requirements of the part.

Ali shot the film sequentially and several scenes were improvised on set based on Bhatt's reactions.

Bhatt won Filmfare Awards for Best Actress for playing a victim of drug abuse in the crime drama Udta Punjab (2016), an undercover spy in the thriller Raazi (2018), a possessive girlfriend in the musical drama Gully Boy (2019), and the titular prostitute in the biopic Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022).

The last of these also earned her the National Film Award for Best Actress.

She expanded to film production with the black comedy Darlings (2022), and had her biggest commercial success in the fantasy film Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva (2022) and the romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023).

The last of these earned her a record-tying fifth Best Actress award at Filmfare.

In addition to acting, Bhatt has launched her own sustainable clothing brand, Ed-a-Mamma, and an ecological initiative, CoExist.

She supports various charities, and is an investor and prominent brand endorser.