New Delhi : Bollywood diva Alia Bhatt who has forayed into production with ‘Darlings’, calls herself a ‘thinking’ actor.
In an interaction with UNI, Alia talked about on choosing Vijay Varma for the film, being a director’s actor, box office race and a lot more.
‘Darlings’ boasts of an exceptional cast including Alia, Shefali Shah, Vijay and Roshan Mathew in lead roles.If she was a director’s’ actor on the sets of ‘Darlings’, Alia said, “I am always a director’s actor. But I give my inputs. I am a thinking actor. I think as the character, after sometime I feel like I understand the character very well. But I have started not only thinking from my character’s perspective, but a larger perspective.”
“Like in a scene it’s written on paper that I have to do some activity, but when on set I felt like no I don’t think my character has to do something here, instead Shefali Shah’s character should do some action. And that actually happened.
“If you give enough logic and explanation why you are thinking that way, everyone understands that. At the end of the day it’s a democracy, we do everything together, but there is only one captain of the ship and that is the director.”
Co-produced by Gauri Khan, Alia Bhatt and Gaurav Verma ‘Darling’ also marks the feature film debut for director Jasmeet K Reen.
Alia continues: “So as long as Jasmeet’s vision was met, everybody was happy. So the endeavour on a film set is always just to give the director their vision, and being it her first film, you wanted her to feel fully cushioned and supported, and let her feel that she can make what she wants, with utmost freedom.”
On why she chose Vijay as the parallel lead, the soon-to-be mom said, “when I heard this script, Jasmeet asked me who do you think for ‘Hamza’ (Vijay’s character name in the film), and I said ‘Vijay Varma’, and even Jasmeet said I was thinking of the exact same thing. We both at the same time gave Vijay’s name because he is a fantastic actor, he is known to be a chameleon, he fits into any role, any part you give him, he just seamlessly goes into it.”
“And we knew he would bring that freshness and newness to Hamza’s character in the film. When you will see the film, you will realise what a fabulous job he has done. But from the beginning it was very clear that he is the perfect Hamza,” the 29-year-old “Gangubai…” actor said.
On whether she had seen Vijay’s previous work, Alia said, “I have seen a bit of ‘Mirzapur’, I have worked with him on ‘Gully Boy’, just generally I have seen his work, and I have loved his work. He is just very natural, genuine, real and new. His delivery is very fresh. You believe the character, whatever role he plays you believe him.”
