Alia Bhatt has proved her mettle as an actress in the seven years that she has been a part of Bollywood. She has proved her versatility as an actress and wowed everyone right from her peers, seniors, critics and audience. Now, she is looking forward to the release of her upcoming period drama Kalank that has an ensemble cast of Varun Dhawan, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditya Roy Kapur and Kunal Kemmu. During a recent interview, Alia spoke about her choice of roles, her character of Roop in Kalank and the changing dimensions of a Hindi film heroine.
During the interview, she was asked that from Highway to Kalank she has celebrated imperfections in the characters she has played. To this, she said, “Yes, imperfect characters do attract me. Also, I feel that you have to give the audience something to fight for. If the character is doing just one thing, there’s no graph to it and it might become monotonous. In life, as a human being, I have taken a few good decisions and also made a few mistakes. I have learnt from it all. In Kalank, every character is flawed in their own way, but they are also strong, which is why they are dynamic. When all of them come together, it leaves so much room for drama, layers and complexities. It’s a true human relationship drama.”
Talking about Roop, her Kalank character she said, “If you notice, our trailer begins with my character saying that a decision taken by her in anger has had a domino effect on everybody’s lives. She’s pure at heart and brave, but she’s also a little rough around the edges. She’s imperfect and might make, what you may perceive, bad decisions. But whatever she does, she does out of love. She’s fighting in love, for love and facing the consequences. Love is her driving force and Roop is like a modern-day girl in the 1940s, who’s ahead of her times. Her attitude might be sehmi hui, but her thinking is powerful and forward. So, she’s layered in many ways because she doesn’t follow what’s right.”
Alia also spoke about the paradigm shift that has happened in actresses’ roles in recent films. She said, “There is a new perception today. There has been a Chameli (2004) or a Gupt (1997) where the actresses have had different shades. We have just started noticing it now. Heroines have been doing it since ages. Even Madhuri ma’am has done some terrific roles, like in Mrityudand (1997). However today, there’s more hunger for roles that are off the beaten track. That’s great and encouraging for a lot of women and actors.”
Kalank is directed by Abhishek Varman and is scheduled to hit theatres on April 17.
