Alia Bhatt opens up on #BoycottBollywood trend, North vs South debate, Brahmastra and more | Exclusive

With the ongoing debate and conversations around North vs South, Bollywood films failing to draw audience to the theatres, not performing at box office to the change in the dynamics of the Indian film industry with crossover of talents, celebrities from Huma Qureshi, Naga Chaitanya, Aamir Khan to Kamal Haasan, Pooja Hegde, Yami Gautam, Arjun Kapoor, among others have all shared their opinions on the above stated topics. Now, during an exclusive chat with Darlings star cast, Alia Bhatt too opened up on various topics ranging from #BoycottBollywood Twitter trend to Hindi films not performing well at the box office.

When DNA interviewed the star cast of Netflix film Darlings including actress-producer Alia Bhatt, Shefali Shah, Vijay Varma, and Roshan Mathew along woth the movie's director Jasmeet K Reen, the actors all shared their opinion on crossover of talents from different industries and the change in the dynamics of the Indian film industry.

Actor Roshan Mathew said, "These boundaries blurring is great. I live in Kochi, I’ve spent some time in Bombay and Chennai. I’ve never been surrounded with a fully Malayali group of people who I know in Kochi or a fully Hindi group of people… we are spread everywhere, all kinds of languages are spoken everywhere. There’s no reason for movies to restrict themselves to the language that is the tongue of the land. I’m particularly excited about the cross-over." He added, “Somehow it always ends up happening from the South of the country to the North of the country (I won’t take names of industries), but I would love to work with these guys in Malayalam."

Adding to Roshan's comment, Shefali Shah told DNA that she would love to do a South Indian film.

Furthering the conversation around the crossover of talents, Alia Bhatt averred, "The endeavour is to prove your might as an industry — the Indian film industry. We have so many languages and we should feel very proud of all the content coming from various parts of the country. Honestly, even I sometimes think that I’ve been in the industry for ten years, what’s taken it (crossover of talents) so long. It may be all of us sitting at home at one time (pandemic) and being able to consume it (content from various languages)."

When asked about the ongoing North vs South debate, Alia Bhatt said, "We are not making this debate, you all are. By you all, I mean — the media. There is no need. I think it’s just unnecessary. Here we are all sitting and being like ‘you’ll are having this debate, we are not. We are very happy and we want to work with each other. Please let us and don’t debate.'"

Alia Bhatt also spoke about her upcoming film Brahmastra. Ask her if she feels pressurised since there are high hopes from the film and it is her first onscreen appearance with husband Ranbir Kapoor, Alia told DNA, "Films in general are very pressuring. By pressuring I mean, any work that any individual does you want to be good at your job, nobody wants to be bad. The general expectation when we walk into a set is for us to give it our all. Especially, with a film like Brahmastra, the idea is to tap into a new visual experience and give the audience something new. The endeavour is to always entertain and give a wholesome film experience to the audience." When we asked her if there's box office pressure, she said, "But of course."

Talking about how this year more than ever box office numbers are being talked about a lot, especially because Bollywood films aren't doing well at the tickets window, Alia Bhatt told DNA that currently, there's unnecessary scrutiny on the Hindi film industry. "Right now, what’s going on is that there's some unnecessary attention and scrutiny on the Hindi film industry which I think really needs to stop and which I think is only from the media. People have always had this understanding of a good film and not-so-good film. That was always there. You (media) are not sitting and counting how many films did well in 2019. Let’s start counting and maybe it will end up being the same number this year. Because of the sake of an argument/conversation that we are sitting and only scrutinizing everything that an actor or the Hindi film industry is doing or even any industry is doing. Let’s go down South and see how many films in the South have done well this year. Maybe they are also having a conversation among themselves saying only these films have worked…why are we only talking about the Hindi film industry so hard and so unnecessarily? The conversation needs to change. There needs to be sort of a ‘step back guys, let them breathe’," Alia Bhatt said.

She added, "Every industry and every field is reassessing their dynamics post the pandemic. Kya ho raha hai na… Bollywood as you say it, which is a slang term, we have always been so used to entertaining you that now you are using us for entertainment in random moments also. Let’s push back, let’s the films come, let them do the business."

Alia Bhatt further said,  "Audience is king. If they like the film, they’ll go watch it…if they don’t, they won’t watch it. It’s all about the next film that comes and entertains. The media scrutiny is unnecessary. It’s always been a gamble at the box office. Now, we are reassessing what are the numbers that are coming at the box office."

Ask her about the #BollywoodBoycott trend, she said, "I don't give any attention to it and the fact that journalists are giving attention to it also shows how used to we have become focusing on the negative. We never focus on the positive. How do you know where that (trend) is coming from or how manufactured it is? How do you know how organic it is?"

"I don't go by Twitter trends, I go by whether a movie does well or not. That’s why am saying the audience is king because they decide whether they want to pay money and go watch a film in the theatre or not. No Twitter trend is going to change that," she concluded.