Understanding the puzzling hate Alia Bhatt receives—and why it’s time for introspection

It can actually be a drinking game at a party, to take a sip every time you have heard any of the following for her: ‘Nepo kid, overrated, not smart, wannabe Kareena Kapoor, copies style and body language of her contemporaries, arrogant, award shopper, cunning.’ Chances are by the end of the round, everyone would be tipsy, but the list still would be far from over.

There is no denying that Alia Bhatt faces an image crisis almost on a weekly basis. She is the spoilt star kid, the hypocritical environmentalist, the undeserving actor– all adjectives which thrive on the alleys of the internet, where nuance suffocates and dies. So much of the ‘flak’ she gets, simply put, feels like a lazy slotting of an actor who perhaps made the mistake of being too self-aware for a crowd that didn’t understand the joke, let alone self-deprecating humour.

The signs were all there, right from the beginning, when Alia goofed up on Koffee with Karan about the then Indian President’s name. The embarrassment was taken into stride and smartly turned into the spoof ‘Genius of the Year.’ She embraced and quipped about what the nation was joking about but was clearly unaware just how strongly the image was going to stick. For the next few years, even as she delivered hits after hits and remarkable performances in Highway, 2 States, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania and Udta Punjab, the joke was still on her assumed intellect. The punchline lost its zing, but the joke kept stretching, until things snapped.

When the nation woke up to the word nepotism (strangely, on Koffee with Karan), several star kids came under fire, including Alia, who seemed to be the leading face of the modern-day Bollywood narrative ‘privilege gone wrong’. The leading argument against her was Alia leveraged her family connection to bag bigger, better, well-curated projects. Over the last few years, especially after the pandemic, the perception skewed negatively so damningly towards her that the only way out of the mess for her could have been through good work. But it is tricky in her case, because it is the very work which is also questioned.

There is no Alia story which can’t be traced back to her mentor godfather, Karan Johar, Hand holding her like his daughter, the filmmaker has famously nurtured the actor, giving her the best projects of Dharma Productions. The nepotism argument, though well intentioned initially, became increasingly ridiculous and painfully obnoxious when it started demanding accountability from producers working with star kids more than it did from the elected government.

But, in this case, a Karan Johar is not obligated to launch actors with no film connections, just as it is not compulsory to watch a star kids’ film. Alia offers the same choice to her audience. “If you don’t like me, don’t watch me,” she said in a 2022 interview to MidDay. Not to anyone’s surprise, she was trolled yet again, for apparently being arrogant.

At the age of 19, when she made her screen debut with Student of the Year, Alia was thrown into the grind. She was the one people least bet on to make it big. In front of her co-stars, also debutants, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra, Alia scored little, impressing the least, casually getting slotted as just another young debutante. It was a grand debut with faint ripples created by Alia.

Unlike any of her contemporaries, Alia Bhatt grew up publicly– from the stinging TV camera gaze, the trolling of Twitter, the memes of Instagram, the paps on the streets and Bollywood groups online which thrive on gossip and accusation in the garb of anonymity. And if there is a conspiracy theory, Alia Bhatt is usually the mastermind. Even if many of the conspiracy theories revolving around the actor find their source in continuous opinions of a contemporary star, who happens to be an outsider. But, to no one’s surprise yet again, conspiracy has more takers than facts in the post-truth world.

When she beams– no guesses where, of course on the Koffee with Karan couch– that her Gangubai Kathiawadi director Sanjay Leela Bhansali has promised her four films because he had collaborated with her contemporary Deepika Padukone on three outings, Alia is painted as a potential opportunity thief.

The relentless angst against Alia stems from the idea that we have been sold for decades, that greed is bad, be content with what you have. Especially when you have the privilege of access and opportunities. If you are born into luxury, why do you want diamonds? Yet, if you desire it all, why aren’t you discreet? Alia Bhatt is unabashedly self-oriented. From making international film debut, launching a production house, to winning awards and bagging coveted global brands, she makes her ambition loud and clear. She is here for herself, like many who came before and several who will come after. She didn’t invent the game, but she knows how to play it– if only people read the right source.