The rise and rise of Alia Bhatt: From SOTY’s stilted Shanaya, to the towering Gangubai Kathiawadi

It was 2012 when Alia Bhatt made a colourful entry in Student Of The Year, with the Shanaya OST blaring to announce her arrival. She swooshed in, surveyed racks after racks of designer merchandise to hammer home the point that she plays a rich brat. She did it with much flamboyance, as the film set her up as the trophy that Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan were competing for. She had a handful of stilted dialogues in the film, and that was it. In fact, the only line that has a separate fanbase of its own was, “Haath mein pompom leke and ladkon kie liye chillana, yeh mera style nahin hai.” She made an impression, but hardly as an actor with heft. It was unclear if Alia would be able to dig her feet in and cement her position in Bollywood.

Then came Highway and it was hard to recognise if this was the same Alia. She played Veera, a young woman whose life has been rife with trauma and suffocation — a far cry from the over-exaggerated and shallow Shanaya. Alia played the role of abuse victim with subtlety and nuance, forcing you to look away in certain scenes as the naked emotion shone through.
While many pointed out shades of Stockholm Syndrome in Imtiaz Ali film, Alia’s sensitive portrayal carried off the film. For those who had probably written her off in SOTY—it was a rather unsettling change.

Since then, Alia experimented with different roles, bringing fresh and unusual realism to each. She could have you convinced that she was the Punjabi bride Kavya, looking for her designer lehenga; or the free-spirited Tia caught in a warring family situation in Kapoor  & Sons. Despite not being the main character, Alia’s vibrant and cheerful persona as Tia wasn’t relegated to the sidelines in the Shakun Batra film. 2016, Alia achieved that milestone as well—where she was the central character in Dear Zindagi, a sensitive film on mental health.  She showed the internal complications of a woman who felt abandoned her parents at a young age, as well as the desperation to hold on to any sort of comfort and relief and draction.
Shah Rukh Khan played the role of her therap, and yet he did not steal the limelight from her. It was probably one of the few times that a relatively new art had shared the frame with an established superstar—and still proved her mettle in a difficult and nuanced role, without being overshadowed. This seemed like a new beginning for Alia.
2018, she carried Raazi entirely on her shoulders, where she played the complicated role of an Indian spy, married into a Pakani family. Alia subtly brought out the turmoil and conflict with just her expressions, body language and eyes—she had learnt the art of ‘sometimes less is more’. The film crossed Rs 100 crore—another empowering milestone for Alia. She played the possessive and angry Safina in Gully Boy, and the Bihari migrant who has to put up with unspeakable abuse in Udta Punjab. And now, in 2022, Alia featured as the towering Gangubai Kathiawadi, adding another glowing success to her name.
It hasn’t been a particularly easy ride for Alia either, as there were several misses on the way too—but like many of her characters in the films, Alia shrugged it off in her interviews and said that it was all part of the journey. There would always be failures, but she wasn’t going to let it rattle her. As things stand, she’s bagged her position on the international arena as well, and would be seen in Heart Of Stone, with Gal Gadot.