Having made her debut in 2012, she is just six films old if you don’t count the special appearances or her roles as a child actor. If her first appearance as a pretty little girl born to privilege made us think that that is all we could expect of Alia Bhatt, she soon proved us wrong. She has been clever in the roles she chose and has been very believable in them. Here are just of the reasons why she is the chameleon she says she is; and the Bollywood actor to watch out for in years to come.
She can be the pretty airhead effortlessly
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She played the superficial, entitled Shanaya Singhania in her first movie Student of the Year, where the sum total of her problems was the fact that there were two boys fighting for her affection.
She can also do a very creditable Veera Tripathi
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She did an excellent job as the kidnapped Veera in Highway; very believable as the high society girl looking longingly beyond her gilded cage, the kidnapped woman struggling with existential angst and sympathising with her captor at the same time.
She is ideal for those love stories as well
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As lovely looking as she is, she was perhaps born to do act in dramas and love stories such as Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania and 2 States.
She can be fey and funny too!
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That deliciously deranged movie Shaandaar may have delighted and puzzled audiences as well as critics, but Alia Bhatt showed us that she can play someone just a little other worldly and make us giggle a bit too.
In fact she can be very funny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfHxl46KyZM
When she made a god-awful slip up on a TV show and this spawned a slew of Dumb Alia jokes. She cleverly took this as an opportunity to show us just how well she can take a laugh; even if it is aimed at herself. Clever, clever Alia!
She is a South Indian? Maybe we can swallow that one too
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Even if many of us found it difficult to imagine Alia as a South Indian; she charmingly made us believe that she could pull it off.
She can also do this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skh1xb5_G30
This bunch of completely over the top ads from a popular travel company gave us more insight into her theatrical abilities. Her Gujju accent may be a little suspect but she is delightfully silly nevertheless.
We will now see her as a migrant labourer in Punjab
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One could argue that she did more of what was expected of her in the very enjoyable Kapoor and Sons but certainly her deglam role as a labourer/ hockey palyer in the upcoming Udta Punjab is as far removed from that as could be.
Most of us are waiting to see what Alia Bhatt will do next!
Author – Reena Daruwalla
