The highway to success

Alia Bhatt keen to experiment with veteran director Mani Ratnam

MUMBAI: Bollywood beauty Alia Bhatt seems to want to do it all. After cementing herself as an actor unafraid of experimenting with versatile roles, Bhatt recently shared that she is keen on working with veteran director Mani Ratnam in the near future. The actor revealed she would love to try her hand at regional cinema and star in Bengali films — something her father, director Mahesh Bhatt, has always wanted her to do.

“My dad keeps pushing me to watch regional films. He had said that I should definitely do Bengali films. I’ve always wanted to work with Mani Ratnam, so maybe I’ll go down south and work with Mani sir soon,” Alia said.

The 22-year-old’s statements come shortly after media speculation which suggested that Ratnam’s Tamil film, O Kadhal Kanmani, was supposed to rope her in for the female lead, opposite actor Dulquer Salman. Another report claimed that Ratnam wanted Bhatt and actor Varun Dhawan for the same film in Hindi, but when things didn’t work out, he made it in Tamil with Salman and Nithya Menen. The Hindi version of the film, titled Ok Jaanu, will now be produced by none other than Karan Johar. Actors Shraddha Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur — the hit pair from Aashiqui 2 — will apparently be starring in the lead roles.



Most recently, Bhatt has been spotted on the cover of popular Bollywood magazine Filmfare, alongside her Kapoor and Sons co-star, Pakistani heartthrob Fawad Khan. The shoot features her seated on a sofa in a long-flowing gown and sporting a brand new hairstyle, while Khan is seen seated on the top of the sofa. The duo is currently busy promoting the upcoming family film, which is slated for release on March 18 and also stars actor Sidharth Malhotra.

“For the first time, I’m posing with Fawad on a cover. I like firsts because they’re always interesting and exciting and this is one of my favourite covers because we tried something different,” said Bhatt. “We went to a completely weird, strange location for the shoot. I really hope it’s worth it.” 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2016.

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