COVER STORY

Trolled. Ridiculed & Mocked!

Is Alia Bhatt being punished for being her father’s daughter?

Despite her repertoire of stellar performances, she is again being disparaged and ridiculed for being the pinup girl of nepotism. Sumita Chakraborty wonders whether Alia Bhatt is being virtually flogged on social media for being the daughter of Mahesh Bhatt who is embroiled in the eye of the media storm because of the late Sushant Singh Rajput’s mysterious death. j

She’s being consistently trolled and sent nasty messages. Mean memes have been created in her name. She has been publicly touted as nepotism’s ill-gotten child. But if that wasn’t bad enough, her motormouth dad Mahesh Bhatt who is now firmly embroiled in the Rhea Chakraborty controversy has made things much worse for her. His clamorous statements on the late Sushant Singh Rajput has fired up hurt fans who have blacklisted him and his daughter Alia Bhatt. So is Alia Bhatt being punished for being her father’s daughter? Not too long ago, Alia was the golden girl who could do no wrong. She was being hailed as a rare talent. In fact, both the public and critics lauded her for being one of the finest heroines in Bollywood, one who could give a stirring performance. Her films Highway, Udta Punjab and Raazi proved that the Bhatt damsel could act. And, how! She had proved herself to be a strong actor and a thinking performer. However, right in the beginning of her career, Alia had to go through brutal trolling thanks to her rendezvous with mentor KJo’s Koffee With Karan where she put her foot in the mouth by saying Prithviraj Chauhan was the President of India. That goof up haunted her for quite some time as cruel memes targeting her as a dumb Bhatt. Rude jokes were whatsapped around caricaturing the Bhatt girl as a brainless bimbo. The twitterrati had a field of a day creating Alia gags. Quite mean really, considering Alia was just 19 then. But the teenager rose to the occasion by posting a video where she sportingly poked fun at herself. Perhaps that calmed the tornado of haters to stop mocking the Bhatt girl. Of course, the trollers too were not too wrong. Alia Bhatt was and is a product of nepotism. After all, she didn’t struggle or go from one production office to another distributing her pictures and asking for work. She didn’t face any momentous nasty incidents or no lecherous producer demanding casting couch favours from her like other strugglers did. She had it good. In fact, all Alia needed to do was breeze into Big daddy Karan Johar’s office and give an audition. In fact, the audition too must have been just a formality, say her many detractors. Her debut in mentor Karan Johar’s film Student Of The Year was already written and sealed in gold. The only struggle that she had was perhaps to loose all her puppy fat. Karan Johar had revealed that he had asked Alia to loose weight at the time of her audition and then return for another audition. Alia lost all her baby fat in a few months and then returned to Karan Johar’s office demanding her reward – a main lead role in Dharma Productions and a first class ticket into Bollywood.

But what her disparagers do not see is that Alia could have rested on her golden laurels and just settled to do the ‘done to death’ rich spoilt girl role over and over again. No, she in fact decided to test her mettle and do Imtiaz Ali’s much acclaimed Highway. It was suicidal… more so, for a newcomer who had no experience in acting, more so she was pitted against the very talented Randeep Hooda. So for Alia, it was an extremely unconventional choice. Why? Well for one, it was vastly different from her cliched romcom Student Of The Year (SOTY) that dabbled in stylish brands and luxe settings. Alia’s character Shanaya in SOTY was one dimensional, lacked depth and did nothing to tap her skills as an actor. Perhaps because of that not too many people thought Alia could be taken seriously as an

actor. In fact, there were many armchair critics who really didn’t see Alia more than KJo’s simpering protégé and foretold rather ominously that perhaps she wouldn’t be able to last outside the luxurious bubble gum world of KJo’s. So could this newcomer with zero acting skills be able to actually act in Imtiaz Ali’s high voltage performing drama? But Alia surprisingly proved everybody wrong. Highway was tough and excruciating but she persevered. “I was a bit confused when Imtiaz Ali came up with the offer. At the same time, I was overwhelmed that he came up with a challenging film and role for me,” says Alia who was just 20 then. But she did the film which was shot in six states in North India capturing the rugged landscape of the region. The off-beat Randeep Hooda was pitted against her rather like David and

Goliath. “I learnt a lot while working with Randeep. He spoke about motivation and following your thoughts,” Alia said at that time, when asked how it felt acting with Randeep, a little bemused and uncertain by what her philosophical co-star had actually said. Perhaps it all went over her pretty head but that didn’t really matter. Highway showcased Alia Bhatt as a powerhouse performer whose latent talent volcanoed to the foremost. The runway success of the film made sure that Alia’s work in it was a befitting slap to her many critics and detractors. Karan Johar, in fact, himself confessed that he hadn’t utilised Alia’s talent to the fullest in SOTY. In fact in an interview to journalist Rajeev Masand, Karan Johar had confessed, “She (Alia) wasn’t used for her talent at all. In many ways, her emotional launch is Student of the Year but her real professional launch is Imtiaz Ali’s Highway. The way he nurtured her as an actor, the way he put her out there, is something I didn’t do at all. I always spotted that there was something about her but I didn’t use her talent at all. I actually don’t feel I full-fledgedly ever directed Alia the way I would like to do.” Quite a confession, right? But absolutely true… so maybe Alia was born out of nepotism but she refused to be confined in the protective boundaries of it. In fact, she wrestled off her shackles to experiment and try something new. Highway was not the only film in her illustrious repertoire as a performer, her film Udta Punjab had critics gasping at her mercurial rise as an actor. Her character of a Bihari labourer at first was severely criticised at the trailer stage. Critics insisted

she portrayed a caricature role of a Bihari but when people watched this dark film, they were entranced by her awesome performance. A star perhaps was born in the Student Of The Year but in Highway and Udta Punjab, a powerhouse performer was born. Raazi emphasized further that Alia Bhatt was an actor of high caliber. Director Meghna Gulzar avers, “Everybody knows by now that if she (Alia Bhatt) had not done this film then it probably wouldn’t get made. So, she is a very big reason that the film got made. It was a pleasure. I tell her that, as a director, she has spoilt me. The level of preparation that she comes with. She will not only know her lines, but other characters’ lines also. She comes with small nuances instinctively and spontaneously. It shows in her performances. If you ask her to make minor tweaks, she comes with whole other alternatives to one performance, which is very gratifying because you see so many possibilities of a character in front of you. It has been a very fulfilling journey making the film with her.” The golden girl had arrived. Hailed by the

public and critics alike, she was loved by all. The failure of Kalank of course, damaged Alia’s golden run. But she still remained unsinged by the aftermath of the flop. …Until she fell from grace because of daddy Mahesh Bhatt. Currently, everybody knows that Bollywood is on fire. Unfortunately, one of Bollywood’s most charismatic and handsome stars who would have been a superstar some day, Sushant Singh Rajput’s untimely death on June 14, 2020, opened up a can of worms. From nepotism, drugs to underworld links were examined under a microscope by the authorities, public and mostly, the media. The mad rampage after this was unimaginable. Sushant Singh Rajput’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty came in the line of raging fire. Mahesh Bhatt who had produced Rhea’s film Jalebi too came under the scanner of the media after a scurrilous rumour claimed Rhea was allegedly Mahesh Bhatt’s Lolita. Mahesh Bhatt who always loved to give his profound views was also the first one to vociferously claim that “Sushant had gone the Parveen Babi way.” 16

Sushant Singh Rajput’s warriors took serious umbrage to Mahesh Bhatt’s words and rightfully so… the young actor was no more to defend himself so it definitely felt like character assassination. Mahesh Bhatt was mercilessly trolled. In fact at the press conference of Sadak, the media grilled him more about Rhea than the film. The 70 plus man in fact lost his cool and spouted out some more profound statements which was again not taken too kindly by the press. Alia too unfortunately became collateral damage. She was mercilessly trolled. Hundreds of peeved fans unfollowed her for her father’s statement on Sushant Singh Rajput. She was again called a nepotism star and all her accolades and past performances were forgotten. One of her old interviews where Alia says, she called up Karan Johar to cast her in Kalank went viral. She was heckled and attacked by the social media for being nepotism’s poster girl. Firebrand actor Kangana Ranaut made things worse by calling Alia a mediocre per

former who bagged awards just because of her powerful connections. Trollers used that as their slogan against nepotism and ridiculed Alia on social media. In fact, first time in the history of films, Alia’s film Sadak garnered 10 million dislikes. Decriers went on a rampage asking fans not to watch Alia’s films. Alia was trolled and targeted. Agreed, in some ways Alia is a child of nepotism but the fact remains she is beyond her “fed with a silver spoon” beginning and has proved that she is indeed a talented actor. Many products of nepotism have not survived in the industry despite their illustrious beginning, but Alia has challenged herself many times over, and proved that she is indeed a powerhouse performer who does belong to Bollywood’s eminent club of good actors. Alia Bhatt has proved herself over and over again… sometimes even walking through burning coal to prove herself as an actor. Perhaps it is time to ease those nasty trolls and give this girl the due she deserves.