Alia Bhatt had been considering her Hollywood options for a few years. A well-known star of Hindi films for over a decade with nearly 79 million Instagram followers, she had been interested in making an English-language film, but nothing had worked out. However, Bhatt learned about a new action franchise led and produced by Gal Gadot, and within a week of reading the script, the deal was closed. She believed it was fate.
In an interview with The Associated Press in June, Bhatt said, “Your first film chooses you. Technically, this is my first English-language movie. It chose me, and I’m so happy it did.”
“Heart of Stone,” a global spy thriller co-starring Gadot and Jamie Dornan, will debut worldwide on Netflix this Friday. Bhatt’s role as a tech prodigy named Keya is difficult to describe without spoiling the twisty plot, but it is an important role. In India, the actor was used to being a lead, but she was happy to take on a supporting role as long as it had substance.
When reading the script, she wanted to ensure that her character wasn’t just there to fill a “South Asian” slot, but rather that she was involved in and impacting the storyline.
Bhatt said, “The way I judge it is if you take the character out of the story and you still have a film, then that character’s not important.”
What excited Bhatt the most was being second to a woman who was also producing. Director Tom Harper referred to Bhatt as a “formidable talent” and stated that the dynamic between Keya and Gadot’s character, Rachel Stone, was the most thrilling aspect of the film.
Harper said, “The two bounce off each other brilliantly and you get real electricity. Some of my favorite parts of the movie are when they riff off each other and the banter that they have.”
Bhatt noticed that Hollywood sets were similar to the ones she had worked on for a decade in India, with the main difference being the hours. While the days were shorter on “Heart of Stone,” so were the breaks. In India, she explained, there would be an hour for lunch, 30 minutes for snacks, and a later finish time.
During the shoot, Bhatt was also pregnant and found it amusing to see some of the things she “did” in the finished film (with the help of stunt doubles and digital effects).
“I’m like, ‘Wow, I did that?'” she laughed. “I don’t think so, but it looks like I did.”
The release of “Heart of Stone” marks the end of a remarkable year for the 30-year-old, during which she also became a mother, attended the Met Gala, and was named the first Indian house ambassador for Gucci. She had a small role in the Telugu-language action epic “RRR,” which became an international sensation, and has been making a name for herself as a producer.
Her first production, “Darlings,” was also a Netflix film, and the experience was “challenging and scary, but fruitful at the same time.”
Coming from a Bollywood family, with her father Mahesh Bhatt being a well-known filmmaker and her mother Soni Razdan a former actress, Bhatt made her debut in Karan Johar’s teen drama “Student of the Year” in 2012. She received acclaim for her role as a kidnapping victim in the drama “Highway” in 2014, and last year she married fellow Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor.
Bhatt shared, “My parents have always been careful with the words of encouragement they give me… It helps when you grow up in a family that’s seen the highs and the lows and everything in between. At the end of the day, my dad always says, you can’t be the first member of your own fan club. So, try to maintain a 10-foot distance from it all.”
She doesn’t have a grand plan for her future in Hollywood and doesn’t see herself relocating to the U.S. like her friend Priyanka Chopra Jonas.
Bhatt stated, “I think what Priyanka did was extremely brave and very different from what anyone has ever done. She’s such an inspiration to every young girl from India who has that big dream to be a global icon and star. I don’t think I could do that. I want to continue doing movies in India and be able to have these occasional, amazing international opportunities.”
She added, “I still don’t know what I’m doing. It’s just this one film, and we’ll see how it goes from here.”