Brand Alia Bhatt is more than just a nepo-baby tag

The actor is currently the reigning queen of Bollywood, but 30-year-old Bhatt is not done just yet

Last year, around this time, when TIME magazine featured actor Alia Bhatt on their list of TIME100 Impact Awards—a recognition of leaders from different fields across the world—the publication celebrated, among the 30-year-old’s cinematic hits, her subversion in an industry that often relegates women as one-dimensional participants. 

“Alia Bhatt acts like a modern woman—flaws and all,” was the title for her read. What is a modern woman in Bollywood, one might ask, and Bhatt summed it up in a Barbie-esque monologue: 

“We have a certain societal norm in which we have to be put together, we have to be right, we have to be quiet, we have to be simple, we have to be soft-spoken, we have to be well-dressed,” she says. “We have to be so many things.” But in her work, Bhatt bores through that facade of a modern Indian woman—“the vulnerability, the jealousy, the lows, the highs, the real things that we are afraid of even thinking.” She’s cracked a code that others from her generation in Bollywood are still grappling with. “If you bring [those experiences] to the forefront on the big screen, then the person watching you from the audience will feel like, ‘OK, I’m not the only one,’” she says. 

A range of roles 

It’s not easy to make a mark in Bollywood. It is a cinematic and cultural behemoth, one of the world’s largest industries that has an estimated market size worth US$2.1 billion (as of 2022).With a presence in over 100 countries, Bollywood is a significant soft power for India that resonates in parts of the world where even Hollywood, the reigning queen of world cinema, has had limited success. The industry is notorious for being a man’s world, is extremely cut-throat and unforgiving. 

But Bhatt is unfazed.

Ahead of the game

In her very young acting career—25 films between 1999 (as a child actor in Akshay Kumar-starrer Sangharsh) and 2023—Bhatt has come to capture the faces and stories of a generation that is deeply rooted in India’s realities, yet is brash, outspoken, even subversive. She’s churlish and entitled in her first film Student of the Year (2012), or a young professional battling mental health in Dear Zindagi (2016). She plays a poor and abused migrant from Bihar in Udta Punjab (2016), and a demure housewife who gets back at her abusive husband in Darlings (2022). This year, Bhatt took on her first Hollywood project, Heart of Stone, also starring Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan. In May, Gucci announced her as its first global ambassador from India. 

“Alia Bhatt is unafraid to experiment with different roles and different platforms. Her range of acting is so vast, I’ve not seen this kind of skill in a young actor in a long time,” film critic and writer Baradwaj Rangan tells The Established. “Right now, there’s hardly a movie in her career that’s not done well.” 

Taking trolls with a pinch of salt

Bhatt’s lessons in crafting her own public image started very young, when, in 2013, on the heels of her debut film, a playful quiz in Koffee with Karan—in which she got a simple GK question wrong—led to unforgiving trolling. Media outlets branded her as dumb, paparazzis

">took potshots at her in public. Bhatt responded with a mockumentary that became a rare and brazen commentary on the fragile whimsies of public opinion. But a bigger response was her four releases that year—Highway, 2 States, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania and Ugly—all of which were box-office successes. 

In May this year, Bhatt told Harper’s Bazaar, “People in the entertainment industry, we live in a lot of fear. But you can’t live in fear. I’m an actor, and only being a part of good films will matter to my career. What I do beyond that doesn’t matter.” 

In 2022, Bhatt recorded 13 hits out of 15 releases but the actor isn’t big on quantitative success. While talking about Heart of Stone, she toldHarper’s Bazaar that more than Hollywood, she got a bigger kick out of doing something completely out of her comfort zone. “Being part of Heart of Stone was a big tick off my bucket list but it’s [not just that]. It’s so that I can keep moving forward into different spaces… and challenging myself,” she said. Bhatt hasn’t been promoting this film widely though. In an Instagram AMA session last month, she said it’s to show solidarity with the Hollywood writers’ strike. 

Bhatt’s presence is palpable in sartorial matters too. Fashion stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania who recalls styling the actor for her first Vogue India cover tells The Established, “It was evident that she had a natural connection with the camera, and the camera with her. Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Alia on numerous captivating shoots,” adds Adajania. Apart from collaborating with her for fashion and films, Adajania also styled Bhatt for her first appearance at the Met Gala this year. “What stands out is her unwavering sense of self. Alia is resolute about her fashion language and statement, yet she remains open to experimentation. Whatever she chooses to do, she embraces with pride, owning the decisions made. That’s something I truly admire about her.”

Acknowledging a cinematic lineage

A significant part of Bhatt’s appeal is her ability to take on uncomfortable conversations. The actor with a family legacy in Bollywood—from her grandfather Nanabhai Bhatt who made over a hundred films between the 1940s and 1980s, to her father and famous director Mahesh Bhatt—has admitted she initially faltered when accused of nepotism. “With time and with age, you realise that there’s a lot of struggle in the world and there is a case to be made in acknowledging the headstart and acknowledging I had an easier path to get into the room,” the third-generation film professional toldHindustan Times. A 2009 report estimates that around 2,000 struggling actors come to Mumbai every day. That number might be higher today, and the industry accommodates only a minuscule proportion. Nepo-babies end up getting the most prominent, star-studded roles. 

“But not everyone can convert their privilege into the position Alia has created for herself,” Shreemi Verma, an entertainment industry professional and writer, tells The Established. “Bollywood actors aren’t seen as being self-aware, yet she took it upon herself to turn that narrative around with wit, self-criticism and humour. We don’t have that in India.” 

Beyond Bollywood

While cinematic doors were always open for her, Bhatt has taken a path less trodden in other ways. Unlike most of her contemporaries like Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra and Katrina Kaif, who launched beauty brands in recent years, Bhatt launched Ed-a-Mamma in 2020, a brand for children's clothing and maternity wear. She also invested in personal care marketplace Nykaa and backs Phool.co, India’s first biomaterial startup. Bhatt says she’s drawn to good stories, irrespective of platforms. “For example, [in] Ed-a-Mamma, I see so many factors that are missing that don’t exist in India. So my focus is on that,” she told Forbes India. At a Forbes India Tycoons of Tomorrow event last year, Bhatt mentioned, “I don’t invest in businesses and stories that I don’t understand.”

She added, “Why would I endorse a brand I don’t believe in? It has to be a relationship that works both ways. That’s the only way for an authentic collaboration. If it’s not authentic, people will smell it and then it all goes down the drain.” This month, Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, led by Ambani scion Isha Ambani Piramal, acquired a 51 per cent stake in Ed-a-Mamma, a collaboration Bhatt described as “two new moms discussing what mothers want.”

Adajania, whose son featured in Bhatt’s first Ed-a-Mamma ad campaign, says Bhatt’s vision of bridging a gap for new moms in the Indian apparel market—even though she wasn’t a mother back then—is “truly exceptional”. “The products’ quality and messaging are both incredibly compelling and clever, whether it's encouraging kids to love their vegetables or raising awareness about ocean conservation,” she says. 

Bhatt’s is now a household name in the Indian luxury market that is estimated to be worth US$8.5 billion. In the 2019 Forbes list of richest Indian celebrities, Bhatt is one of the only two women in the top 10, with a net worth of ₹59.21 crores, followed by Deepika Padukone with a net worth of ₹48 crores (cricketer Virat Kohli tops the list). It’s no wonder Gucci—known for staying relevant and innovative—chose Bhatt as its first Indian brand ambassador. “In the grand tapestry of Gucci's illustrious history, it has perennially symbolised the pinnacle of elegance with dollops of cool,” says Adajania, who styled Bhatt for Vogue’s May-June cover this year to announce the Gucci news, as well as the brand’s corresponding event in Seoul. “In Alia, we see the potential for her to seamlessly weave together the contemporary classics of the fashion world, binding them together into her own unique narrative.”

Many have walked the ramps in Paris and New York but rarely have Indian faces been chosen as prestigious brand ambassadors of global luxury brands. Bhatt is preceded by supermodels like Ujjwala Raut (Yves Saint Laurent), Lakshmi Menon (Jean Paul Gaultier), actor-singer Priyanka Chopra Jonas (Bvlgari) and Deepika Padukone (Louis Vuitton). 

Harish Bijoor, a brand strategy expert, tells The Established that Bhatt specifically attracts the attention of certain brands with class. “A brand endorser gets the kind of brands that are in sync with their audience persona. And so does Alia Bhatt,” he says. A 2021 Duff and Phelps celebrity report estimated Bhatt’s brand valuation at US$68.1 million—the first Indian woman on the list.

Bhatt just announced her next project, Jigra, directed by Vasant Bala, who is known for critically acclaimed hits like The Lunchbox (2013), Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016). Verma, who has previously worked at Dharma Productions, says Bhatt’s career is similar to late actor Sridevi in terms of her wide range of acting. “Most actresses get typecast but Bhatt has subverted all of that and given us an intelligent mix of masala and strong women characters. This is why nobody accepted her flowerpot role in Brahmastra (2022), because we’re not used to seeing her in one-dimensional roles,” she says. 

Rangan says that Bhatt’s knack of doing unexpected, one-off roles will continue to keep her audiences and critics on the edge of their seats. “Actors typically have longer careers than stars. She’s going to achieve that,” he says.

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