Bollywood A-lister Alia Bhatt is bringing her career to new heights with her first Hollywood and action movie, 'Heart Of Stone'. Photo: Chris Baker/Netflix
If there is one thing acclaimed actress Alia Bhatt loves to do, it would be to challenge herself and explore new opportunities.
After over a decade in the Bollywood film industry, Bhatt is more than ready to bring her acting career to new heights as she takes on her very first Hollywood, English-speaking role in Heart Of Stone.
In the Netflix movie, Bhatt plays Keya Dhawan, a tech prodigy who’s also one of the most dangerous hackers in the world.
Directed by Tom Harper, Heart Of Stone revolves around intelligence operative Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot) who works with a mysterious group of elite spies, known as the Charter, to keep world peace.
However, Keya decides to steal a powerful asset called the Heart to reshape the global power dynamics and build a new world order.
The movie – currently streaming on Netflix – also stars Jamie Dornan, Sophie Okonedo, Matthias Schweighofer, Jing Lusi and Paul Ready.
Despite it being her first action movie, Bhatt delivers a powerful performance – from the way she carries her character to the way she executes her action sequences.
Even more impressive, the 30-year-old – who is married to popular Indian actor Ranbir Kapoor – filmed the movie while she was pregnant with her first child.
“Not many people knew (about my pregnancy) on set.
“Gal was one of the few people who knew about it, along with my director and of course the stunt team. I don’t think Jamie knew,” Bhatt told StarLifestyle in an exclusive virtual interview in June.
“There were a couple of sequences where the assistant team was like, ‘Do you want me to say something?’ because there’s lots of pushing and pulling, but they were being extremely cautious and safe.
“They wouldn’t take a chance with me for a lot of the high-impact stuff because I was pregnant, so it was more about giving those reactions and close-ups,” Bhatt added.
'Heart Of Stone' sees Bhatt playing as a notorious tech prodigy named Keya Dhawan. Photo: Handout
The actress added in another interview with Bombay Times that she had major exhaustion and nausea during the first few weeks of filming.
However, that didn’t stop her from going all out.
Refusing to limit herself, the RRR (2022) star continued working hard while listening to her body’s needs.
Apart from shooting Heart Of Stone, Bhatt was also busy promoting her films, Darlings (2022) and Brahmastra (2022), as well as her children’s wear brand, Edamamma.
After giving birth to a baby girl, Raha, last November, the actress continued filming Heart Of Stone. This time, Bhatt wanted to be more involved in the gruelling stunts in the movie herself. So, she decided to jump into training immediately.
“I couldn’t do the wire work while I was pregnant, so I did it (after). For that, I had a day or two of full-on rehearsals where I was just hanging for many hours.
“It all comes together when you see the final film and it all looks really impressive,” she said.
A new chapter
Bhatt was five years old when she made her acting debut in the 1999 thriller Sangharsh.
However, she only began actively pursuing an acting career in 2012 after landing her first leading role in the comedy movie, Student Of The Year.
The Bollywood star, who holds a British citizenship, has since won five Filmfare Awards – including one Best Actress (Critics) for her role as a kidnap victim in Highway (2014); and four Best Actress awards for the movies Udta Punjab (2016), Raazi (2018), Gully Boy (2019) and Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022).
Bhatt was listed as India's highest paid actress in 2019. Photo: Chris Baker/NetflixShe was also hailed by Forbes India as the highest paid actress in the country in 2019, with an annual income of US$7.4mil (RM33.7mil).
Heart Of Stone marks a new chapter in Bhatt’s already impressive acting career as she heads west.
Her venture into Hollywood has been celebrated by many fans, who congratulated and praised her for making India proud.
Speaking about her foray into the Western market, the Kapoor & Sons (2016) star told Harper’s Bazaar that it was fuelled by her desire to learn, grow and be challenged.
Bhatt also said in the production notes that she had been wanting to work on an English language film after a decade in the Indian film industry.
However, she was waiting for the right opportunity as she wanted her role to be true to who she was and where she came from.
“I found that in Heart Of Stone and in the character Keya, because she’s from India and she’s pushed against these extreme circumstances.
“She has to really prove herself and she’s fighting for something, as everyone is in the film, and she has her own motive,” she said.
Enjoyable experience
Contrary to popular belief, Bhatt revealed that there was no big difference between Hollywood and Bollywood as everyone had the same vision and spirit for their respective projects.
During our eight-minute chat, the actress said that one of the most enjoyable experiences she had while working on her first Hollywood film was recreating the intense, high-stake moments in Heart Of Stone.
Bhatt says her venture into Hollywood was fuelled by her desire to grow and be challenged. Photo: Screengrab from Netflix/YouTube
“There’s a lot of green and blue screen activities happening behind you and a lot of the stuff is created in post-production. I really enjoyed doing that because it really puts your imagination to test.
“It’s not very stunt-driven but more imagination-driven, and that creative part of it while physically committing to the moment... I found it to be extremely engaging,” she added.
The Bollywood beauty also enjoyed working alongside Gadot, whom she described as very fun and easy-going.
According to her, the Wonder Woman star had an aura that made working with her very comfortable.
“When I’m around her, I feel like I’ve known her for a long time. She goes out of her way to make sure everyone is comfortable and happy,” she said in the production notes.
Likewise, Gadot shared in an Instagram Story that she had a great experience working with Bhatt, whom she described as “an amazing talent and such a great person”.
Echoing a similar sentiment is director Harper who said in the production notes: “(Bhatt) is a formidable talent, has great intelligence, and expert attention to detail as well as that amazing film star charisma.”
Upcoming action project
Next up for Bhatt will be yet another action movie, this one revolving around a prison break. She is set to star opposite Indian actor Vedang Raina in the yet-to-be-titled film.
Meanwhile, Variety reported that Bhatt has signed up to play a super agent in another untitled action thriller, which will begin production in 2024.
According to the publication, this will mark the first time for an actress to take on a leading role in Indian studio Yash Raj Films’ spy universe – a shared universe centred on a series of spy action movies such as Pathaan (2023), War (2019) and Ek Tha Tiger (2012).
While Bhatt enjoys engaging in high-octane action and is great at playing a spy, she told StarLifestyle that she might not be the best field agent in real life.
“I think I’d be really good at the back end. I’m not so sure about on-ground and interacting with people because I’m not a very good liar.
“But I think at the back end, managing things and being on top of things I’m pretty good in that area,” she said.
