‘Alia Bhatt was from Juhu, she hadn’t seen much of the world’: Randeep Hooda says he wanted her to be ‘terrified’ of him during Highway

Also read – ‘They tried to make Aishwarya Rai look real, but…’: Randeep Hooda says he bonded more with Sarabjit Singh’s family than his iconic co-star

Randeep explained, “I had exposure… I’d been in NCR with the Gurjars and Jaats. I grew up among them. So, to keep her fear of my character in place… She used to be terrified of me, and I made sure of that. I never spoke to her. She wouldn’t come sit next to me also. And that’s the effect we wanted in the movie, because that character had to be… She was new, she was still getting her acting chops right. I hope somebody does these things for me.”

In a 2014 interview with Indian Express, Randeep had spoken more about this process. He said, “She thought I was uninteresting. But I only started talking to her once the characters do. I imagined it as the Beauty and the Beast. When I told Imtiaz about my ideas, he said, ‘No, I also want women to like you’.”

Alia has now emerged as one of the most acclaimed Indian actors of her generation, in addition to being a bankable name. She was last seen in the hit film Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, and will next be seen in Jigra, directed by Vasan Bala and co-produced by herself and Karan Johar.