For decades, senior characters in Hindi cinema were relegated to narrow templates: the selfless, sacrificing goddess figure, the widowed mother praying for Karan and Arjun’s return, or Raj and Pooja Malhotra navigating late-life heartbreak in Baghban. Even in lighter films, elders remained affectionate side notes: Amarjeet Kapoor (Rishi Kapoor) in Kapoor & Sons, the loving dadi (Farida Jalal) in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, or the spirited tipplers Dolly Arora (Dolly Ahaluwalia) and Biji (Kamlesh Gill) in Vicky Donor. Their role was to nurture, advise, or amuse.

Recent films offer a striking reversal. In Vadh, retired schoolteacher Shambhunath Mishra (played by Sanjay Mishra) murders a predatory loan shark and carefully stages the perfect cover-up. Its follow-up, Vadh 2, places him inside prison, navigating the underworld economy that thrives behind bars. In Suresh Triveni’s Subedaar, retired army man Arjun Maurya (played by Anil Kapoor) works as a mafia bodyguard and answers humiliation with violence.

Look further south and Mammootty is rewriting the rules of ageing on screen, first as the unsettling anti-hero of Rorschach (2022) and, more recently, as a calculating serial killer in Kalamkaval (2025).

Women characters have also moved decisively away from the saintly mould. In Vadh 2, Neena Gupta plays Manju, a double-murder convict plotting escape. In the streaming series Mrs Deshpande, Madhuri Dixit portrays a woman imprisoned for serial killings. Triveni’s Maa Behen places another maternal figure in a macabre situation: a mother calls her estranged adult daughters home because a corpse is lying in her kitchen.

The trend has been gaining momentum over the last few years. In Darlings (2022), Shamshu Ansari (Shefali Shah) assists her daughter (played by Alia Bhatt) in the brutal retaliation against an abusive husband and carries her own violent past. Ajji (2017) follows a frail grandmother who carefully plots revenge against the man who raped her nine-year-old granddaughter.

These are neither supporting turns nor caricatured villains. They are central characters: flawed, furious and fully in command of their stories. The greying character is no longer a sentimental aside. Increasingly, they are the story’s driving force.

Part of the fascination lies in the narrative surprise. Audiences have been conditioned to associate age with passivity or moral authority, not danger. Writer-director Jaspal Singh Sandhu, who created the Vadh franchise, points out that the unexpected nature of the character drives the tension. “When you get something where it’s not expected, it works like a charm. It’s easy to create drama there,” he says, referring to Shambhunath Mishra, the quiet retiree who methodically turns predator into prey.

Triveni believes the disruption itself generates conflict. “An older person as a criminal creates instant tension,” he says. “We don’t associate age with threat or strength, so it surprises us.”

Writer-director-actor Vijay Maurya, whose Mast Mein Rehne Ka (2023) follows two ageing characters who begin breaking into homes simply for the thrill of it, argues that these stories deliberately move older characters away from pity. “In real life, oldies can be quite mad if you just open them up,” he says. “I wanted to push the characters away from sympathy and into adventure.”

The idea that age is just a number is moving beyond rhetoric and into storytelling. Filmmakers say the notion that life ends at 55 no longer reflects how people live or see themselves. Triveni sees a generational shift underway. “The older generation is making a statement: we are not done or down and out yet,” he says.

“Look at social media. You see people in their 60s getting fitter and reinventing themselves. Actors too have stayed relevant. The fuddy-duddy parents we once saw in films are changing.”

That shift is visible on screen. Contemporary cinema is replacing automatic sympathy for elderly characters with agency. The appeal may also lie in the contrast with reality. Off screen, older people often seem to be losing control, whether to automation, online scams or growing dependence. On screen, however, seniors command the narrative. They can be angry, manipulative, even criminal, and still hold the audience’s attention.

For Maurya, that freedom reflects an evolution in storytelling. “The germ of ideas has evolved,” he says. “As a writer, it’s an exciting time because you can go radical with characterizations and people will still connect with them.”

With streaming platforms expanding the range of stories being told, filmmakers expect the shift to continue. Triveni believes changing formats and viewing habits are widening the narrative space for older protagonists. “There’s a cultural shift underway,” he says. “A wider audience means a chance for newer narratives, and those narratives are putting elders at the centre of the story.”

For Sandhu, the real transformation lies in the way characters are now conceived. “The character’s story, not age, is the hero,” he says. “If the actor and the character fit the narrative and entertain you, where does the question of age arise?”

And so, it appears, Hindi cinema is finally letting its elders be fully human — messy, cunning, and occasionally dangerous. They are no longer just waiting for a phone call from their children; they are making the world answer to them.

Enough of embracing dark and intense characters — be it in Darlings (2022), Jaane Jaan (2023), or Dahaad (2023). Now, Vijay Varma is in the mood for love. The actor attempts his first love story with director Vibhu Puri’s Gustaakh Ishq, opposite Fatima Sana Shaikh. To the audience, his switch from brooding characters to a lover boy may seem like an aberration. But to Varma, it feels natural.

“I wasn’t surprised that Vibhu offered me this part. I came from a stage background, the memories [of being part of romantic dramas] are living within me. When the announcement happened, it looked like an anti-casting because Mirzapur, Dahaad, and Darlings came back-to-back and [gave me] the intense tag. That tag won’t be dropped even with this film,” he says.

Gustaakh Ishq isn’t the first romantic script to have been offered to the actor. A lot of nos were said before he lost his heart to the period love story. “Many romantic films came to me all these years, but I didn’t see myself in them. I don’t want to dance a lot in movies. I don’t want to sing and dance because they are not my forte. So, I needed to pick the script that works for me.” 

There was another reason to say yes to the movie — Naseeruddin Shah. Varma starred with the veteran actor in IC 814 (2024), but they didn’t share screen space. To finally face the camera with Shah is a moment of pride in Varma’s 17-year career. “He was my teacher [at Film and Television Institute of India]. I have worked backstage in his theatre productions. Ever since I came to Mumbai, I haven’t missed a single play that he has done. I’ve idolized him. I feel like patting my own back because as a boy in Hyderabad, I wished to meet him. And here I spent two months with him in the winter of Amritsar, enjoying delicacies together,” he marvels.

Starring in a romantic drama? Check. Sharing screen space with your hero? Check. Does Varma have any more wishes? “I have to do a comedy, not because I want to break an image, but because I want to do every kind of film. It’s just a matter of time with the right script,” he smiles.

Unmissable is how Roshan Mathew describes his character in the upcoming thriller, Kankhajura. The actor plays Ashu, who reunites with his elder brother Max, essayed by Mohit Raina, after serving 14 years in prison. The Sony LIV series explores the changing family dynamics, conflicts, and secrets amid his return. With Ashu written as an unpredictable and intense part, Mathew says his approach was to build the character’s inner world in his mind.

“I tried to understand his core — who is Ashu when he is just by himself? What’s his base layer that no one else sees, because he is pretending in front of almost everyone,” shares the actor. Since his Bollywood debut with Anurag Kashyap’s Choked in 2020, Mathew has struck a balance, juggling Malayalam films like C U Soon (2020) and Night Drive (2022) with Hindi offerings Darlings (2022) and Ulajh (2024).

Kashyap has repeatedly remarked that unlike Bollywood, the Malayalam film industry is anti-hierarchical. Does Mathew agree? “Everything that he said is true. However, [in Bollywood], I’ve not had the kind of negative experiences that he has had. I’ve been lucky that even when I worked with a big star like Alia [Bhatt], I never felt that her stardom was hindering [filmmaking]. In fact, her being the star only helped the process, be it Darlings or Poacher [2024].”

He adds that in Malayalam cinema, people raise eyebrows if an actor throws starry tantrums. “Everybody is on equal footing [there]. When it isn’t the case, it’s an anomaly,” he states.

Men in thick, flowing beards. Shotguns that seemingly come with infinite shells. Fights on top of helipads, trucks, bridges. A background score that drowns out everything else. And, a box office register that doesn’t stop ringing for angry young bros.

This roughly sums up the year’s blockbusters. Of course, nothing matches the misogyny of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s A-rated ‘Animal’. It has the male character cracking jokes around menstruation, gratuitous violence and even the hero asking a woman to lick his shoes to prove her love for him.

“Like revenge tourism, 2023 was the year for revenge movie-watching in India,” says Girish Johar, Mumbai-based producer and film business expert. “Action has always been a safe bet. However, after the pandemic, filmmakers and producers know they need big-scale, larger-than-life films to pull audiences out of their homes. Other types of films, they prefer to watch on OTT,” he adds.

The statistics bear this out. The top seven grossers in 2023 all belonged to the action genre, including ‘Jawan’, ‘Pathaan’, ‘Gadar 2’, ‘Jailer’, ‘Leo’, ‘Animal’ and ‘Tiger 3’. ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’, which took the eighth spot, stood out as one of the only rom-coms that emerged a hit. There were several female-led films such as Kareena Kapoor Khan-starrer ‘Jaane Jaan’, Tabu-led ‘Khufiya’ etc but they did not hit the theatres and were directly released on OTT platforms.

Through the years, Hindi cinema’s male protagonists have shown several shades. The 1950s showed a tempered masculinity, gentled by the trauma of independence and partition, hopeful about the future. Think of Guru Dutt’s romantic artist — philosophical and doubting. Raj Kapoor’s tramp is bewildered by industrial modernity, Dev Anand is a louche charmer. None of them is particularly muscular, some even have an androgynous quality. In these early movies, there was a resistance to social norms, a questioning and conflict around tradition, even as many films implicitly reaffirmed gender conventions.

Of course, the straitjackets of virtue and good-girlism confined women. They were usually props and symbols, whether as deified mothers and bhabhis, vamps and ‘items’, or even ‘heroines’: love interests with no independent character arcs or complexity. But the men had range.

The ’70s moved from Rajesh Khanna singing about lost love, to Amitabh Bachchan’s smouldering rage at unfulfilled promises to the working classes. In the ’80s, this subaltern male anger turned into a darker thing, with lawlessness and vigilantism as central themes. It was pretty much standard to show stalking and harassment as a prelude to love. The movies lingered over rape, showing it as a titillating spectacle, and as a method to teach other men a lesson, as a loot of izzat.

The post-liberalization era saw themes of love and rebellion emerge, with romantic heroes grabbing the spotlight. However, a 2002 study of Hindi movies from the late ’90s said moderate sexual violence against female characters was “depicted as fun, enjoyable, and a normal expression of romantic love”. Now, a new hype masculine ideal has gathered strength.

While the depiction of violence in films isn’t new, the present surge marks a ‘shift’ in the use of it, says Geetanjali Chadha, professor of gender and cinema at Ashoka University. “During the ‘angry young man’ era, the violence had a purpose. It was more about the difference between the rich and the poor, and made the audience root for the underdog. Today, it’s closely tied to nationalism, strength, and glamour. The women too are no longer passive, often playing a key role in accepting it,” she says.

Economics plays a role too, points out Shrayana Bhattacharya, economist and author of ‘Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh’, which analyzed the moviegoing experience in India through the lens of gender and class. “Because men hold 82% of the country’s income, movies that depict strong men may do better at the box office than those that depict more vulnerable men or stronger female parts,” she explains.

However, while the action genre means good business, it has also raised questions about the shrinking space for women moviegoers and women’s stories. Paridhi, a 22-year old from Delhi, says the rise of such ‘alpha male’ characters, shrinks her options. “The problem is not with violence, but the glorification of it. I also went to watch ‘Pathaan’ and ‘Jawan’ in the theatres, but with ‘Animal’, the clips really made me uncomfortable. Looking at its collections, other male actors will definitely gravitate towards this genre too.”

However, Nikhil Taneja, co-founder of youth-centred media organization Yuvaa, and host of the podcast ‘Be A Man, Yaar’, says he isn’t convinced that hypermasculinity is the only thing that works. “There’s a space for alternative conversations, even in action films. In ‘Pathaan’, for instance, Shah Rukh Khan has a female boss, and is saved by a female spy. In ‘Jawan’, he has an army full of young women,” he points out.

However, he adds that it’s important to understand why many young males today are tilting towards ‘alpha male’ content, espoused not only by films like ‘Animal’ and ‘Kabir Singh’, but also podcasters such as Andrew Tate. “I have interacted with over 15,000 students across campuses in the last four years for research work. While women dealing with various forms of patriarchy are often able to find sisterhood and community, men have told me they lack positive communities to talk about loneliness, which leads to bitterness, anger, and violence,” he says.

In a scenario like this, they often turn to characters they can relate to, or those who vindicate their emotions, he says, adding that therefore, filmmakers should have a certain degree of accountability of what they’re putting out there.

“Toxic characters should be represented on screen, but they have to be self-aware and have context. For instance, in films like ‘Darr’ and ‘Anjaam’, everyone knew SRK was the bad guy and he met his fate in the end. However, in some films being made today, if the directors put a cool background track as the character commits violence, they make it a character worth aspiring for. Men look at it and think it’s cool.”

Jasmeet K Reen,, writer of the critically acclaimed ‘Darlings’, feels that artistic freedom is paramount, and the audience can be the only judge. Her Alia Bhatt-starrer depicted a woman breaking free of a marriage filled with physical and psychological abuse. Some scenes were graphic, and the writer grappled with how to depict them.

“Every filmmaker has their own ideology which, whether they like it or not, reflects in their films. If I’m making ‘Darlings’, what I feel, what my ethics are, what I feel about sexism, what I feel about gender, what I feel about violence, it will show in the film. It also means that everybody has a distinct voice and I cannot control how other people should tell their stories,” she says.

For many, Vijay Varma and Tamannaah Bhatia’s relationship came as a pleasant surprise. Reason? The two actors gained popularity for very different kinds of cinema, and onlookers wondered how the two of them, belonging to different schools of cinema, found a common ground.

Tamannaah is largely known for her glamorous commercial potboilers in Bollywood and South films, while in recent times, Vijay made his mark through edgy characters and unconventional stories.

Recently at an event, talking about the same, Vijay said, “I feel I have a lot to learn from her, and there are so many things that I know that she understands, which perhaps makes her look at things differently. That makes this equation interesting.”

Vijay said, “It’s so shocking and new for people to see these two very different worlds coming together, but between the two of us, we are very similar as people. Our values and beliefs are the same, and that’s what matters the most.”

When asked whether they discuss films when they spend time together, Vijay said, “We both are very hard-working actors and when you approach each role with vigour, you end up celebrating things together. It’s a good feeling to have somebody who you can share that joy with.”

Vijay, who has stunned the audience with his recent performances and has won a huge fan following for his work, said that he is confident of his abilities but has a long way to go. “I don’t feel that I have arrived yet, but I know that I have worked really hard and had a long journey to get to where I am today. So, I am exactly where I am supposed to be and it’s a good feeling. I am in the middle of my journey, and I have miles to go and much more to achieve, so it’s an ongoing process and I am enjoying it. Along the way, I met some incredible people, filmmakers and actors, whom I could collaborate with. It’s been an honour to be a part of stories like Darlings and Dahaad,” he signed off.

In a film about domestic violence, Darlings (2022) director Jasmeet K Reen snuck in a tender love story between Shefali Shah and Roshan Mathew’s characters. As the dark comedy completed a year of its release on August 5, Shah, looking back on the Alia Bhatt-starrer, says the romantic track took her by surprise.

“I didn’t see it coming at all. The romance was short and sweet, and was handled with the sensitivity it required. People wanted a spin-off of Shamshu and Zulfi [Shah and Mathew’s characters respectively],” smiles the actor.

Shah has been enjoying the golden period of her career since Delhi Crime streamed in 2019. After shouldering the acclaimed crime drama, the actor took on myriad roles—be it a lonely wife who finds love in Ajeeb Daastaans (2021), or a house-help determined to seek justice for her daughter in Jalsa (2022). But she laments that her softer side isn’t explored enough.

“I carry an image. Directors have said that I am intimidating and serious, assistant directors are instructed to speak to me only when spoken to. But a few hours down the line, they realise I am a different person altogether. [That’s why] I was excited when Darlings came my way. Playing a wacko like Shamshu was fun. I am hoping it showed directors that I am open to comedy.”

Currently, the actor is in discussion for four projects. And where does Delhi Crime 3 stand? “It’s in development. I am terrified of going in front of the camera as Vartika.”

When Vijay Varma says he found the script of Kaalkoot “unputdownable,” it carries weight. After all, here is an actor who seems to be attracting powerful stories—be it Darlings (2022) or Dahaad. But he had another reason to gravitate towards director Sumit Saxena’s crime drama. It has him portray a positive character after a spate of negative roles.

“Playing an idealistic, wide-eyed police officer like Ravi Shankar [his character in Kaalkoot] was a refreshing homecoming. In 2013, I started my journey as an actor by playing a police officer in Monsoon Shootout, and now after 10 years, I’m playing a similar role again,” he says.

The Jio Cinema series, also starring Shweta Tripathi Sharma, revolves around Varma’s cop who initially seems unfit for the job, but throws himself into it when a case hits too close to home. “He steadily understands himself through his work. I have been part of some good dramas, but Kaalkoot was unputdownable. It starts with an acid attack case, and then, over eight episodes, delves into how other characters are involved in such attacks.”

Varma is known to dive deep into research and prep for his roles, and it was no different for Kaalkoot. Since the story is set in Prayagraj, he worked with a diction and voice coach to perfect the accent.

“The bigger challenge was to find the naiveté of an inexperienced idealist. To be naïve is tough for so-called thinking actors. In Kaalkoot, it was my personal pursuit to act dumb.”

Barring the upcoming series, playing complex and troubled characters has become the actor’s calling card. Surely, such characters must not be easy to shake off after the shoot. Varma has a simple “detox” process.

“When a character gets to me, I go and talk to my mother. I step out of my character and become her son again. That’s the best form of love any actor can have to become themselves again. The talk brings me back to reality.”

So, will he show the crime drama to his mother? “It has been a while since I have asked my family to watch anything as I play dark characters. But I’ll ask my mother to watch this because I’m playing a nice guy after a long time,” he laughs.

Vijay Varma is on a hot streak. In only a year, the actor shone bright in Darlings (2022), Dahaad and now Lust Stories 2. “I feel on top of the world,” he smiles, when we sit down to chat with him. The actor made waves this summer with his intense depiction of a serial killer in the widely acclaimed Dahaad, following it up with the Netflix anthology that dropped this weekend.

Tell him he has come a long way since his breakout turn in Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy (2019), and he reflects, “There is so much content coming out every week, across languages. When everyone stops to look at my show, it’s amazing. I finally feel seen. It feels like I’m moving in the right direction. While these may seem like dangerous stories, I want to continue doing them.”

Unheard stories excite him. Varma’s second criterion is directors. He admits his good work is the result of finding like-minded filmmakers. “I’d rather be a log of wood in a good director’s film than be the lead in a movie made by a filmmaker I don’t admire. I am glad Sujoy Ghosh thought of me for The Devotion Of Suspect X and Lust Stories 2. He is teaching me so much, including Bangla,” he laughs. 

While their segment in Lust Stories 2 received mixed reviews, the actor stands by the storytelling. “A short film is challenging because a lot of it is on paper, but there’s time constraint. It’s an actor’s job to internalize the character.”

Over the past year, there has been intense scrutiny on OTT content. As an actor who gravitates towards risky stories, does he find himself curtailing his choices? “I’ve shot stuff that sometimes doesn’t make it to the edit because the maker feels it doesn’t serve his story. Filmmakers know what can or cannot get them in trouble. Actors surrender to the script and the makers’ vision. Censorship is not always from the outside; makers have their own moral compass. I’m working with some of the finest directors in the country, and they are far more intelligent in handling censorship than actors.”

We can’t end the chat without asking him for an update on The Devotion Of Suspect X, which sees him alongside Kareena Kapoor Khan and Jaideep Ahlawat. Varma teases us, saying, “Uska dhamaka jaldi aayega.”

Malayalam actor Roshan Mathew may be only two films old in the Hindi film industry, but he is enjoying his run. In Darlings, he was charming as Zulfi, who is always happy to help the mother-daughter duo — essayed by Shefali Shah and Alia Bhatt — in their endeavours. His earnest portrayal has earned him a Best Supporting Actor: Film nomination at the upcoming mid-day and Radio City Hitlist OTT Awards. Looking back at his role, Mathew says while the powerful script gave him a solid foundation, perfecting the Mumbaiyya accent proved tricky.

“In Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai [2020], I played a south Indian character, but Zulfi is a little more ambiguous. He might have his roots in Kerala, but he had to convincingly come across as someone who belongs to that locality [in Mumbai]. A lot of prep went into acing the language,” he shares.

Zulfi’s unexpected romance with Shah’s Shamshunissa was one of the highlights of Jasmeet K Reen’s directorial venture. Mathew credits his co-star for making it a love story that people rooted for. “Shefali is warm and has a great sense of humour. So, the sense of intimidation ended as soon as I saw her. We were comfortable at our very first reading session.”

Working with Shah, Bhatt and Vijay Varma made him raise the bar. “I was inspired by watching these three bring in their best for every shot.”

Juggling Hindi and Malayalam projects can’t be easy, but Mathew says it keeps him on his toes. “I enjoy when someone suddenly picks me up and puts me in a different context. Whenever I get comfortable, I like to be pulled out of that comfort zone.”

Roshan Mathew has been nominated in the Best Supporting Actor (Male): Film category for Darlings. 

The other nominees are:

- Amit Sial (Qala)

- Anil Kapoor (Thar)

- Gajraj Rao (Maja Ma)

- Naseeruddin Shah (Gehraiyaan)

- Sikandar Kher (Monica O My Darling)

There are 16 categories that the public can vote in. Log on to www.radiocity.in/hitlistott to cast your vote.

Voting lines close on February 22.

When Darlings director Jasmeet K Reen briefed Vijay Varma on his role, she explained that the character should be able to evoke dread merely by walking into a room. The violence, she stated, should be “felt” rather than shown on screen.

“You feel the dread, but you barely see any violence inflicted by Hamza [Varma’s character]. He gets beaten up more than he beats up people, but the fear still works,” reflects Varma, who is nominated in the Best Actor: Film category at the upcoming mid-day and Radio City Hitlist OTT Awards.

In Netflix’s dark comedy, the actor plays a bullied ticket-collector who vents out his frustration by abusing his wife Badrunissa, played by Alia Bhatt. He read Hamza as a man who wants to become better, but cannot overcome his cynical and abusive tendencies. Admitting that it was  a risky choice, he is glad that the role has won him audience’s love and critical acclaim.

“There aren’t too many men who would choose such a role. I took the chance, and believed in Jasmeet. I felt that the story [of domestic violence] needed to be told.”

He credits Bhatt for elevating his performance. “Alia is a hands-on actor. None of her takes is similar; she always throws surprises at you.”

Darlings has not only brought new audiences to Varma, but also diverse offers to pick from. “A few years ago, I decided to focus on doing lead parts. Darlings is one of the first steps towards that. There is also a constant pursuit to [choose] material that surprises me.”

Vijay Varma has been nominated in the Best Actor (Male): Film category for Darlings.

The other nominees are:

- Diljit Dosanjh (Jogi)

- Paresh Rawal (Sharmaji Namkeen)

- Rajkummar Rao (Monica O My Darling)

- Rishi Kapoor (Sharmaji Namkeen)

- Vicky Kaushal (Govinda Naam Mera)

There are 16 categories that the public can vote in. Log on to www.radiocity.in/hitlistott to cast your vote.

Voting lines close on February 22.

It’s rare for actors to find roles that speak to them, but not for Shefali Shah. The actor, who is reigning digital entertainment with direct-to-web movies and series, has bagged three nominations in this year’s mid-day and Radio City Hitlist OTT Awards. She reprised the role of Vartika Chaturvedi in Tanuj Chopra’s Delhi Crime 2. The actor effortlessly played the sorrowful and helpless maid trying to seek justice for her daughter in Vidya Balan-starrer Jalsa. Who can forget the quirky and quick on her feet Shamshunissa from Darlings?

Thrilled to have had wonderful projects to her name in the year that went by, she says, “I am glad I stuck to my instinct. People have finally recognized that I could be playing the kind of roles that I am playing [now] and headline projects. I feel grateful. I won’t say I am satisfied because I have a long way to go and I have just begun.”

It is indeed time for Shah to reap the benefits of her hard work. The actor believes that the projects turned out great because everyone—writers and directors—were “ready to delve deeper into the human psyche”. “My experience on all three films were extremely enriching. I have to give it to the writers and directors who could finally envision me in these parts, playing my age, leading projects, being a part of the primary ensemble cast and trust me with these kinds of characters. I hadn’t done work like [I did in] Darlings or rather I haven’t been offered work like that, so it was fun. Working with these people in Jalsa has been inspiring,” says the actor, adding that it was scary to return on screen as Vartika in the second instalment of Delhi Crime.

“It has become too large.” The first edition of Delhi Crime won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2020.

Shah, 49, is glad that storytellers are keen to depict reality and tell stories about women who do not necessarily fit into the age bracket of 18 to 22. “It feels gratifying [to see] all the appreciation translating into work.”

Ask her to pick her best work in 2022, and she is quick to say that she had special bond with the quirky woman of Darlings. “There is a perception that I am a serious person, but that has to do with the roles that I play. In fact, the character I [come] the closest to is Shamshunissa in Darlings. I have a quirky, wicked and funny side to me, which was fun [to bring out on screen]. The script was well-written and I love the genre,” says Shah, who is thrilled to be acknowledged at the Hitlist OTT awards.

“Awards are important because they are the recognition of appreciation. It is something that will stay with you forever. I will be lying if I say awards are not important.”

Shefali Shah has been nominated in the Best Actor (Female): Series category for Netflix’s Delhi Crime, Best Actor (Female): Film for Amazon Prime Video’s Jalsa and Best Supporting Actor (Female): Film for Netflix’s Darlings. The other nominees are:

- Amruta Subhash (Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt Ltd, ZEE5)

- Fatima Sana Shaikh (Modern Love Mumbai, Amazon Prime Video)

- Huma Qureshi (Maharani S02, SonyLIV)

- Masaba Gupta (Masaba Masaba S02, Netflix)

- Sakshi Tanwar (Mai: A Mother’s Rage, Netflix)

- Shriya Pilgaonkar (The Broken News, ZEE5)

- Shriya Pilgaonkar (Guilty Minds, Amazon Prime Video)

- Alia Bhatt (Darlings, Netflix)

- Deepika Padukone (Gehraiyaan, Amazon Prime Video)

- Huma Qureshi (Monica O My Darling, Netflix)

- Triptii Dimri (Qala, Netflix)

- Vidya Balan (Jalsa, Amazon Prime Video)

- Ananya Panday (Gehraiyaan, Amazon Prime Video)

- Bhumi Pednekar (Govinda Naam Mera, Disney+ Hotstar)

- Juhi Chawla (Sharmaji Namkeen, Amazon Prime Video)

- Radhika Apte (Monica O My Darling, Netflix)

- Swastika Mukherjee (Qala, Netflix)

There are 16 categories that the public can vote in. Log on to www.radiocity.in/hitlistott to cast your vote. Voting lines close on February 22

In the past few years, Raashii Khanna has witnessed several changes in the industry, some significant, others not so much. To her, the most noteworthy change is in the depiction of women on screen.

“Now, there are writers who write [powerful] female characters. I have been in the industry for [over] seven years. It’s only now that [female actors] are being given the respect they deserve,” she reflects.

Farzi is one such example, says Khanna, who will be seen as an investigating officer in the crime thriller that revolves around a con artist. The Amazon Prime Video series might have big names like Shahid Kapoor and Vijay Sethupathi attached to it, but creators Raj-DK ensured that she shone just as brightly on screen.

“Raj-DK are feminist directors. The way they have written my character, and shown empathy to a woman in a professional space [is remarkable]. They’ve shown the problems that today’s women face, through my character.”

Raj-DK are anomalies in an industry that is infamously kinder to men. Some of the recent blockbusters have been testosterone-driven — from KGF - Chapter 2, to Pushpa: The Rise. Isn’t that cause for concern?

“Shefali Shah ma’am and Alia [Bhatt] are creating a parallel space for women, with their films. If a certain kind of film is working, that’s great. But a film like Gangubai Kathiawadi or Darlings balances it out.”

After a year of some surprising highs and lows, the film industry is stepping into the New Year with hope and promise. However, the year gone by gave a few Bollywood actors a reason to rejoice and celebrate. Alia Bhatt is one actor who owned and conquered 2022. Having proved her mettle as an artiste many times over, 2022 was an extremely special year for Alia for more reasons than one. In a year that saw the mighty fail, Alia set the screen on fire with her feisty portrayal of Gangubai Kathiawadi. And she was only getting started. Next, she was seen in S S Rajamouli’s RRR, which went on to become a mega box-office suceess, and followed it up with Ayan Mukerji’s ambitious Brahmastra and her first production, the highly acclaimed OTT movie, Darlings.

The year also saw her marrying her boyfriend and Hindi cinema’s acting powerhouse Ranbir Kapoor. The two were blessed with a baby girl (Raha). In her first exclusive interview after becoming a mother, Alia opens up on the best year of her life, what lies ahead, marriage, motherhood and more. Read on...

Professionally and personally, the year began on a high note for me. Nothing was a lot to handle, although every stage was surreal. The way 2022 unfolded for me, it felt like a movie. Be it Gangubai Kathiawadi, RRR or Brahmastra, there was a kind of build-up of many years and anticipation coming together, given my association with Sanjay Leela Bhansali sir, Rajamouli sir, my first film production Darlings and of course, Brahmastra, which was in the making for many years. Lots of hopes were attached to the year and whenever there’s hope, there’s room for heartbreak. If things don’t go right, your heart can crumble into pieces and you can’t prepare yourself for it. You can do everything as an actor, but eventually, it’s in the hands of the audience. For each film of mine to not only be appreciated but also generate a conversation, it’s a big moment of gratitude for me. At every point last year, I couldn’t believe that things were going so well! How nicely the tick marks were coming on my report card. At the end of the day, an actor’s career is a report card. You have to score good marks, and if you don’t, you feel bad, and you have to work harder.

There is no right or wrong in life. What works for me might not work for someone else. I have always listened to my heart. You can’t plan life. Life plans itself and you just have to follow that path. Whether it’s films or anything else, I always let my heart decide. Yes, at the peak of my career, I decided to get married and have a baby. But who says that marriage or motherhood will change anything to do with my work? Even if it does, so be it. I don’t care. I knew that in life, I would never regret the decision to have a baby. It’s a natural instinct. It’s the best decision that I have ever made. I have never been happier or more fulfilled. Every moment is more meaningful as a mother. Also, I believe in myself as an actor. If you work hard, are a good actor and if people want to work with you, aapke paas kaam aayega. And if work doesn’t come to you, then so be it. Maybe it’s not your time. I value my work a lot, but I also value my life beyond it, and I want to strike a balance between the two. Dil mein jo aata hai woh karo.

Totally. I am still the same person, but everything is different. Motherhood brings a completely new dimension to your life. Your priorities change. The word ‘responsibility’ holds a new meaning altogether. It’s the most vulnerable you can ever feel in life. Your heart opens fully.

When I was younger, I used to make resolutions, now I take each day as it comes. New Year always brings new energy. Kuch naya karna ho, accha karna ho, hum naye saal mein karte hai. Newness is always nice. For me, every day is a new day and a fresh beginning. I wonder how 2023 is going to live up to 2022! 2022 has been the best year of my life. I have two releases this coming year, so I am excited about them. I am excited to see my daughter grow up, see her facial expressions evolve and celebrate her first birthday in 2023.

Aisa kuch nahi hai. I will get back to work and brand commitments by the end of this month. Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani is slated to release in April 2023 and Farhan Akhtar’s Jee Le Zaraa will go on the floors. I am absolutely thrilled about these films.

I don’t believe in limiting myself unless there’s some physical limitation. I was pregnant, so yes, there was scope for many limitations, as pregnancy is unpredictable. I decided to take each day as it comes and listen to my body. Of course, work is very important, but at that point, my baby and my health were my priority. From the very beginning, I told myself that only if I was comfortable, will I push myself. Touchwood, my pregnancy didn’t hold me back physically. Yes, the first few weeks were slightly difficult, but at that time, I didn’t talk about it because you are not supposed to say anything for the first 12 weeks, right? That’s what everybody says, so I had to keep that information to myself, but I was listening to my body. I would try to get as much rest as possible, but you also have to meet your work commitments. Heart Of Stone is my first Hollywood movie, which I signed in January 2022. I tried hard to work out that schedule, so I didn’t want to back off. The team assured me that they will take good care of me. I managed to shoot my first action film while I was pregnant! That is a story I will tell for years because it also makes you realize how much your body is capable of if you just put your mind to it. I have immense respect and admiration for my body.

Shefali Shah has spent almost three decades in the film industry, infusing life into varied characters. Whether in her web show Human, alongside Kirti Kulhari, or web films Jalsa (co-starring Vidya Balan) and her latest, Darlings, with Alia Bhatt, the actor has been lauded for the camaraderie she shares with her female co-stars. But Shah admits she’s often perplexed about this notion that no two female actors can get along.

“The whole thing about women against women… I haven’t seen any of it yet. Maybe it is media hype. Have you heard of [female] actors pulling each other’s hair, or b*tching about each other? I mean, who have you heard fought like this? I really don’t know where this comes from,” she tells us.

The 49-year-old reveals there has always been a sense of unity in the industry: “When an actress does well or gets an award, it is a victory for every actress. All actresses are paving paths for each other, particularly in an industry that was once male-dominated.” Here, she is quick to point out that the industry is no longer male-dominated.

“I take immense pride in working with the women I’ve worked with till now. It has been a treat to work with them... This whole thing of two actresses fighting or having jealousy is bulls**t,” she asserts, adding, “It’s sweet that people are praising me for this (camaraderie with female co-stars), but I don’t need a medal for this. It’s the least we can do while working with each other.”

That aside, the actor is looking forward to exploring the highs and lows of a new case and unravelling a mystery in the second chapter of the web series Delhi Crime. She admits the show, which won the top prize at the International Emmy Awards 2020, will always have a special place in her heart. “My character Vartika Chaturvedi becomes a human from a hero, in this season,” she says.

Ask if the team feels any pressure to meet the audience’s expectations after delivering a hit first season, and she says, “The new season comes with a different case, a different director and a new narrative. So, trying to compare the two [seasons] is just unfair… It is not a competition with the first season. We have to make a really good show. Why should there be any comparison?”

Alia Bhatt with mid-day’s entertainment editor Mayank Shekhar at the latest edition of Sit with Hitlist. Pics/Ashish Rane, Satej Shinde

Shortly before he became the OTT sensation/star of sorts, actor Pankaj Tripathi used to be Alia Bhatt’s tutor — for a month. This is when Bhatt was preparing to play Kumari Pinky, a brutally abused, drugged-out migrant girl from the under-classes in Udta Punjab (2016).

“There is a ‘Pankaj Tripathi wave’ that came, na, but it came after that,” Bhatt recalls her trainer, whom she’d meet every day, mastering body language, Jharkhandi dialect, down to how her character sits on haunches for hours.

It’s the only time in her career that Bhatt confesses she went “method” on herself. Meaning, abandoned cell-phone, never stepped out of hotel room, consumed no entertainment, spent time interacting/empathising with local youth, never switched on the TV, and simply marinated in the character, until the shoot ended. Why? Because she wanted to prove she was “a chameleon as an actor.” To whom? To herself, she says.

But looks like even before the audience, first to her director, Abhishek Chaubey — who hadn’t imagined Bhatt at all in the role while scripting it. She had in fact read the said script, through Shahid Kapoor, her co-actor in the romantic fantasy, 'Shaandaar' (2015), that they were shooting at the time. She actively went up to Chaubey, asking him to consider her for the battered female lead. The initial look-test didn’t wholly convince him either.

She even learnt to play hockey for a month, which is only part of the character’s back-story, not even in the film. The effort totally matches the outcome. Although she says, “There is a part [of me] that says I won’t do it again; of course, never say never. I only played that part for 20 days, which was great. I don’t know how I would have survived it for, say, 60 days.”

And it’s not that she hasn’t attempted sufficient variety since her debut in Karan Johar’s 'Student Of The Year' (SOTY, 2012), a high-school musical, playing the high-heeled, dolled-up Shanaya Singhania, who’s also admittedly nothing like Bhatt, contrary to popular belief: “If you saw me in the clothes that I wore for my first audition, you would know how I was really not that character.”

Apparently around 400 young girls tested for that debuting role. Bhatt was in 11th standard then.

Set for a starry career, she followed up SOTY with occupying a polar-opposite space as Veera Tripathi, with a traumatic past, in 'Highway' (2014). How did she land up there? In the same way that she grabbed 'Udta Punjab' for herself — through persuasive skills.

She recalls, “Imtiaz was thinking of going with an older woman. He bumped into me at a screening, and I was very actively pursuing him. I gave him a vibe that was genuine and heartfelt. And Imtiaz Ali offering me a film, after 'Rockstar' and 'Jab We Met', of course, was a big moment for me. I read the script, and was like, okay, tough, tough, tough… I don’t pay anyone to take me in their movies, in case anybody was trying to sell that narrative. I think dedication sells on the top of the pyramid, and then come the rest. Talent is secondary, hard work is number one.”

More importantly, in showbiz, nothing sells like commercial success. And Bhatt has to her credit quite possibly the best box-office report card in Bombay. Over the past decade, all films starring her, have performed at the cinemas, barring merely two. She’s quick to point them out — Shaandaar (2015) and Kalank (2019).

As I write this, 'Darlings' (2022), Bhatt’s latest release, is trending at number two, across the world, on Netflix. She made a longish appearance in one of India’s greatest hits ever, S S Rajamouli’s 'RRR' (2022). Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 'Gangubai Kathiawadi' (2022), with Bhatt in the title role, in fact, turned out to be a face-saviour of sorts for Bollywood in the theatres, post the pandemic, while pretty much all the top-starrers have bombed since.

Ever since she can remember, Bhatt had always wanted to be an actor. As an audience, as she described it, she was a “runty thing”, watching all of Govinda’s No 1 films in the front row of Juhu’s Chandan cinema: “I was like, mujhe Govinda banna hai!”

She entered the big screen as Preity Zinta’s child version in her father Mahesh Bhatt’s production, 'Sangharsh' (1999), when she was six. Enough offers came her way thereafter for similar parts, but her mother Soni Razdan (also an actor) was clear she didn’t want Bhatt to become a “child actor”; instead she should “study, lead a normal life; acting can happen later.”

The mother made an exception once, though. This is when she took little Bhatt out for an audition, suggesting it’d be a good experience. It’s only when she reached the building, and her mom asked the watchman about Bhansali’s floor, that she figured she was going to audition before a director she had been fan-girling over, forever: “How ironic, na, that even the building he stays in is called Magnum Opus!”

The role was for Bhansali’s 'Black'. Taking an instant shine to the kid, Bhansali told the mother right then that while he wasn’t considering her for Black, he did have a film in mind, wholly centred on her. This was going to be Balika Vadhu, that Bhatt would’ve debuted as a heroine with, when she was nine!

“We did costume rehearsals, look-tests. I went ahead and danced on Dola re dola and all of that. Ghoom phirke, I don’t know what happened. I went back to school. Sir decided not to make the film. But the keeda of working with him remained stuck in my head. When I joined the movies, I was told Sir only works with actors at their prime. I knew once that happens, I’ll get the chance.”

She still feels he should’ve gone ahead with Balika Vadhu, which became a hugely popular network TV show few years later. At the press conference before Gangubai’s premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, Bhansali described how Bhatt had stormed out of the director’s office, having first heard the film’s concept/script. She laughs, “Sir exaggerates a little bit. He said she ran out of the office. He was not wrong. I did get a little thrown off with the subject, because we were supposed to do another film [Inshallah, a romance, with Salman Khan, that got shelved]. So I was like, you know Sir, it is a very different subject. Totally different from what I had imagined. I need to digest it for a second, but it was a no-brainer [to accept the offer].”

Box-office successes apart, what has struck audiences is Bhatt’s capacity to convincingly inhabit worlds so separate from hers — whether as a mature, Kashmiri spy, undercover in Pakistan in 'Raazi' (2018), or for that matter, the cutesy girl from Ambala in 'Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania' (2014) — given a protected upbringing, with life experiences that barely stretch beyond Juhu, the tony, filmy neighbourhood where she’s lived all through. In terms of the world/setting, the only film, she says, that comes close to her own, is 'Dear Zindagi' (2016).

The 'Udta Punjab' acting process was of course an anomaly. Otherwise, she says, besides unconditionally submitting to her directors, and approaching the part/script “from an academic sense” beforehand — on the set, she likes to be in the moment, trusting her instinct and spontaneity.

“For instance, in Darlings, I depended a lot [on the debutant director] Jasmeet [K Reen]. It helps to work with a writer-director. You know that they’ve lived with the script for that long. Jasmeet spent three months in Byculla [where Darlings is set]. She would come and tell me things. You are then really responding, living, breathing that moment [on set]. That is why I had so much fun working with Shefali [Shah], because she is exactly like that. You don’t know what she is going to do. Also, I am a bit of a sponge. You can tell who I’ve hung out with on a given day — because I start speaking like that person!”

Which was the case with Gangubai, Bhatt reveals about Bhansali being the performative inspiration: “I took so much of Sir’s personality and put that into Gangubai’s character — the way he speaks, thinks, has a certain attitude, tashan… Because it is in his head. Film is the director’s medium. And then it’s the written word. The actor has to collect all those things and place it in front of the camera.”

Which kind of explains the unique range Bhatt manages, with three disparate directors — channelling lower-deck Bombay, in what can be seen as a trilogy in her career — playing Safeena from Kurla in Zoya Akhtar’s 'Gully Boy' (2019), down to 'Gangubai' (from Kamathipura), 'Darlings' (in Byculla).

Within Mumbai itself, it’s not that there’s been anything regular about Bhatt’s own life, or so one guesses. The first time I saw her, from a distance, was at the premiere of SOTY — she would’ve been 19, decidedly seeming a brat. Everyone is allowed their 20s, and all the senseless swag that comes with it. Only that a life entirely spent under a spotlight doesn’t allow for such leeway. That’s been the 20s for her. She’s 29. Did it require a certain mental adjustment?

She admits, “Well, you got to keep it together at most times, yes. I am very open to people’s opinions. That is the only way a person learns. But there is [this] humbling part [in my personality] that also comes with my upbringing, and the people around me. I am not the first member of my own fan club. I do not believe the sun shines out of my backside. I genuinely believe I am here to do a job, and must continue to do it well, which is a by-product of a lot of people doing their job well. It is not just me. I value that.”

The question was actually meant more in terms of whether she has led the normal 20s, pulling all-nighters at nightclubs, playing the fool, with friends, etc? “Actually, I recently realised that I have literally not been a ‘present’ friend for 10 years. And they let me be ‘unpresent’, because they knew I was chasing something. And you have to make sacrifices to try and get what you want. I have the same [set of] nine friends I went to [Jamnabai] school with. At the end of the day, I feel most comfortable with them. There is a certain version of myself that I have to be in a public space, which I don’t, in their company. What matters to them is me, being me. That’s very grounding. The reason I have not lost them, is because of them. Because they have been so understanding, supportive.”

The other aspect that separates a regular person in their 20s from those killing it in showbiz, or sports as well, is your income levels — which go in the opposite direction of almost all other jobs, where you make so much less at an early age, and financially peak only nearing retirement, when there is hardly the same energy/inclination left to splurge!

At what age did Bhatt buy her first car? “At 19-20; Audi Q5.” First home? “At 21. But listen, I feel very touched and grateful for the privileges. That’s why I believe in giving back, I have set aside a certain amount of money that goes into CSR on a yearly basis, for animals [rights, protection], that I feel very passionately about.”

What did she get paid for her big Bollywood debut, SOTY? “Rs. 15 lakh. I deposited the cheque straight to my mother and very nicely said, ‘Mamma, you handle the money. Till date, my mother handles my money.” 

Where does she invest her money — I’m just curious, having never met someone as rich through their 20s, with an income/earning that is totally theirs? “In fact my CA, who’s also a family friend gets stressed out — that I don’t spend any money, don’t invest, that I need to enjoy a little bit. But I am not much of a spender.”

That said, Bhatt concedes she does have some sort of “business brain”: “Itna toh mujhe pata hai. I created my own children’s [clothing] brand, and I put my own money into it. I didn’t go to an investor. And the brand has grown a lot.” It’s called Edamamma; meaning?

“My [five-year-old] cat’s name is Edward, who is my inspiration for everything. So Ed-A-Mamma, like Ed’s mama. He is there in my production house logo as well [there is a cat’s whiskers], and in the beginning of my film.”

Bhatt launched her movie company with Darlings, and named it Eternal Sunshine, which is an obvious reference to Michael Gondry’s 2004 romantic sci-fi, surely? “It is one of my favourite films. But it’s also the feeling [that] movies [evoke]. I believe movies are [an] eternal [sunshine].”

Her character Badru in 'Darlings', presumably the same age as her, actually has a checklist hanging in her wall at home, with life-goals for boxes that she must tick, before she attains a certain age. Why does that sound familiar?

Here’s Bhatt, the actor, with a house, car, checked, before 21; Bollywood debut before 20; started a film company, and then married, and is even expecting a child, before she turns 30! Is she following some timeline — yes/no/maybe?

Bhatt says, “Contrary to the character in Darlings, I don’t have a list. I have never had a plan. In fact, I used to think I will get married very late. I was one of those girls, who didn’t really talk about marriage much. But it is totally different, when you fall deeply in love, and you also feel like, okay, no, you want to get into that next point of your life.”

“That happened very naturally with Ranbir [Kapoor]. I don’t know why. It just happened. And I am not feeling like my work will stop, pause, or change. I will continue to work till the very end. But that [raising a family] section of your life is something that you have to give your time and energy to. It is not going to happen by itself.”

As for manifesting life events, here’s something that can’t be denied about her relationship with her now-husband, Ranbir Kapoor. Over the past decade, pick up any interview, especially the rapid-fire round type stuff that’s common on YouTube chats.

Every time she’s been asked about a crush, someone she’d like to date on-screen, etc — inevitably, her answer has been Ranbir Kapoor. Which is mildly strange, since both of them had been dating other people, all through. It’s almost like she set her eyes on this guy, and simply announced to the world that that’s the one she’s gonna end up with.

Bhatt laughs, “You know, it is really weird. I was saying it as a regular ‘cute girl’. I was not actually chasing Ranbir on the side, or plotting to get Ranbir; none of that was happening. The fact that I was saying it obviously means I was not thinking about it. Sometimes when you think about it, you never say it.”

 

“It is beautiful how it naturally worked out, when we started working together on Brahmastra. For the longest time, we were socially meeting each other. But we had our own lives. There was no interaction, nothing. There was not even a friendship. I could not even call Ranbir a friend. But it naturally happened on that one flight to Tel Aviv, when we both were not seeing anybody. Both of us were single. Both of us were like, ‘Oh my God, what were we doing all these years?’ ‘Why aren’t we together?’ It was a question he kinda asked me. I was like, ‘I don’t know!’ So that’s what I was talking about. You cannot plan something like this.”

By the way, Bhatt will soon get christened Bhatt-Kapoor, or Kapoor-Bhatt, however she plans to put it, for her last name. While Ranbir has “fondly” changed the marital status on his passport, she hasn’t had the time to make the submissions since her wedding.

But she intends to go in for an official name-change in her travel documents: “We are going to have a child now. I don’t want to be the Bhatt, whilst the Kapoors are traveling together; you know what I mean? I don’t want to feel left out.” Her screen name, she says, will remain the same.

That’s a lotta information to share, given her marriage ceremony itself in Mumbai on April 14, 2022, seemed no less than a state secret, with her fans, and therefore the national press, going on all fours to scoop out any details they could, while none were forthcoming.

Even the wedding date was open to speculation — what with one uncle in the family declaring a date, and another cousin contradicting it. It’s unclear if either was invited! Why not just reveal the date, and end the unnecessary attention.

Bhatt says, “Par mere ko announce nahin karna hai. Kyunki yeh public event nahin hai [Why? It’s not a public event!]. Speculation was also that there are 25 vegan counters [at the wedding]. I said I didn’t even have 25 guests. What am I going to get 25 vegan counters for? And I have got a lovely but a basic house. You speculate what the hell you want, it is fine, entertaining. I don’t care. I didn’t want to confirm it. Because you have to understand, I live in a residential building. It was anyway a nightmare [for the neighbours] — poor things, we sent them all hampers…”

A celebrity destination-wedding, away from prying paps, could have also saved everyone from the traffic snarl on Pali Hill, with TV crews clogging the two-lane road for days, assuming she could tie the proverbial knot, any afternoon/evening/night!

“Yes, haath jodke unse maafi maangti hoon [I apologize with folded hands], but we made enough preparation. I wanted to get married at my house, where Ranbir and I have lived together for the past many years since our relationship began. It was perfect, comfortable — I got to interact with everybody, because there were only 40 people. We aren’t the big, celebratory kinda people.”

Speaking of unnecessary media attention, while India, like the world, was reeling under COVID-19 in 2020, the national TV news media, particularly certain aggro anchors, known for manufacturing enemies within, chose Bollywood as a fresh egg in their basket. Accusing it of being the hotbed of a nepotistic culture — the insider-outsider, elite-subaltern as binaries, being part of a wider politics.

The city’s film industry was under siege in nightly debates, that instantly expand to trolling online; both feeding off each other. Bhatt belongs to the third generation in the film industry. Her grandfather Nanabhai Bhatt used to make swashbuckling stunt flicks in the black-&-white era. And she was introduced to Bollywood (along with Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan) by Karan Johar, who was himself under attack for heading a “gang”/”mafia” of sorts. She, in turn, uniquely became the face of Bollywood’s nepotism. Surely the insane vitriol can take a toll — what did she make of it?

“I believed the only way I could shut the conversation down is through my movies. So, don’t respond, don’t feel bad. Of course, I felt bad. But feeling bad is a small price to pay for the work that you are respected and loved for. I delivered a film like Gangubai. So, who’s having the last laugh? At least until I deliver my next flop? For now, I am laughing!”

Bhatt is combative enough as she makes her case further: “I can’t keep defending myself verbally. And if you don’t like me, don’t watch me. I can’t help it. That’s something I can’t do [anything about]. People have something to say. Hopefully, I will prove to them with my movies that I am actually worth the space I occupy. That’s the controlled person in me. The other person in me is like, ‘What the hell is this nonsense? Why is this happening for no reason?’”

“Nepotism, in my opinion, exists in every industry. It’s leveraging your connections to help somebody get a position. You can similarly put somebody forward for a job in tech, marketing, or finance. But if he messes up that job, the company goes into a loss. [Likewise in films] the audience is the biggest barometer for success. If they believe you’re worth that success, they will give it to you. Another thing — how can I control where I am born, bhai? Tomorrow, if my child wants to get into acting or movies, they will have to work hard to prove. So you have to have a super thick skin [about it].”

Which she does, evidently, over a deceptively petite frame — even a sense of humour, actually. Recall the video she once made with AIB, lampooning herself, responding to memes in 2014, because she couldn’t answer who the President of India was, on the chat show Koffee With Karan.

Oh wait, that reminds me, does she know who the President is now? To be fair, it’s a trick question. At the point we were recording this episode of Sit with Hitlist, Droupadi Murmu was the President-elect. She remembers [Ram Nath] Kovind. “Madam President,” she says. Asking me in return if I know who the production designer of Darlings is. Fair point, I should know, but I don’t [it’s Garima Mathur]. My bad. But it’s not the same thing!

While Bhatt sweetly retaliates, “I don’t want to give the wrong answer. And tum mujhe dumb samjho, mujhe koi interest nahin hai, jaake meri film dekho, bas [Think of me as dumb if you like, never mind, just go watch my movies].” Oh not dumb at all — someone with an uncannily high emotional intelligence, for sure.

A motley set of characters makes up the universe of 'Darlings'. While Alia Bhatt plays the much-in-love Badru who wises up, Shefali Shah essays her sharp-tongued mother Shamshu, and Vijay Varma, Badru’s abusive husband. In the midst of this, Roshan Mathew’s harmless Zulfi comes as a breath of fresh air, happy to help the mother-daughter duo as they hatch a plot against Hamza.

Mathew says he ensured that his character wasn’t too innocent for his own good. “I wanted to find the balance. He shouldn’t come across as a stupid guy who they are taking advantage of. He chooses to be with them, no matter what,” he explains.

Zulfi’s love story with Shah’s character is one of the highlights of the brave Netflix film. The actor credits director Jasmeet K Reen for beautifully handling the track. “There is nothing unconventional or out of the ordinary about this relationship. We weren’t saying it aloud. In the scene, he realizes that there is no way out, but to confess his feelings. [His initial hesitation] is because of society. You get judged if you do things that society does not consider normal, [but] he is honest in his love for Khala [Shah’s character].”

In his seven-year run so far in the Malayalam industry, Mathew has made a mark with his choice of films, from 'Moothon' (2019) to 'Kappela' (2020) and 'C U Soon' (2020). As he juggles Hindi and Malayalam cinema, his idea is to find powerful stories, regardless of the language. “I want to keep working in Hindi and Malayalam cinema. I don’t want to come here and do a film that could [be made] anywhere. It has to be a film that I wouldn’t get to do in Malayalam.”

A bullied ticket collector by day, who vents out his frustration by physically abusing his wife at night, only to offer promises the morning after of reforming himself — it couldn’t have been easy to play the toxic Hamza with conviction. But Vijay Varma doesn’t hit a single false note, shining brightly alongside Alia Bhatt and Shefali Shah in Darlings. Days into the film dropping on Netflix, Varma says his character is bombarded with hate online — a sure-shot sign that he has done justice to the role.

“Hamza is getting all the hate. People are saying, I want to kill him, punch him and what not! But the actor in me is winning a lot of love. That is reassuring when I take chances like these. There are also women who are championing me for essaying a part like that, which called out the monsters in their lives.”

In a recent interview to mid-day, director Jasmeet K Reen said that the writers spent months building and humanising Hamza (What is art for if not to trigger conversation, Aug 8). When Varma stepped into the role, he dived deeper into the process. “I had a few questions: Why does he raise his hand on Badru [Bhatt’s character]? Why does he shout at her? I had a chat with Jasmeet about it. But I didn’t judge the character when I was playing it, because that would be a disservice.”

Darlings marks his second collaboration with Bhatt after Gully Boy (2019). He is astounded by her ability to grasp the nuances of her character during prep. “Alia does so much math [about the role] in her head that she is almost possessed. She is constantly calculating [her character’s] moves. She will be in that zone until she has figured it out. I had the best time collaborating with her.”

Darlings is a product of many things new — a new producer in Alia Bhatt, a new director in Jasmeet K Reen, and most importantly, a new lens through which the horrors of domestic abuse are captured. Beneath the humour, Bhatt, Shefali Shah and Vijay Varma’s dark comedy tackles the sensitive subject of domestic violence in marriages. When we connect with Reen, who has also co-written the Netflix film with Parveez Sheikh, we start our chat with how she brought authenticity to the subject at hand. 

“When I wrote the story, I knew I wanted to do something different with the subject. I played with structure, and mixed a couple of genres. I stopped watching [movies]. I didn’t want this to be referenced from anything at all. This story comes from life — one has grown up seeing violence of varied forms in Indian families,” says the first-time director.

Before she told the story of Bhatt’s Badrunissa and her mother, essayed by Shah, Reen understood it was important to reflect the fear that women inherently carry. She elaborates, “We have a scene where Badru says, ‘Sab ladko ko line mein khada karke goli maar deni chahiye.’ That line comes from everyone we know who has felt helpless anger. But the character is so innocent that she gets scared when the cop calls [soon after], because as women, we are not even allowed to think bad things, let alone execute them. I wanted it to be a funny scene, but the after-feeling had to be sadness that people live in such fear.”

Reen sat on the film’s idea for a year before taking it to Sheikh. It took them two years to crack the milieu and the characters. Thus was born Badrunissa, who after years of suffering abuse at husband Hamza’s hands, makes an audacious plan with her mother to avenge it. “I wanted the characters to be simple and sweet,” says Reen.

She further explains, “Badru is the daughter of a single mom, and has never seen her father. So, when she has a husband who loves her, she wants to go all out. She believes he has only one problem — alcoholism. Badru has told herself that if she loves him, he will change. Most women operate from that romantic optimism. Alia is the kind of actor who keeps talking about her role and absorbs every word you say. In front of the camera, she gave life to the character I had in mind.”

It was critical for the writer duo to humanise Varma’s character, Hamza. Reen says Varma discussed his part with them for four months, understanding his impulses and motivations. “Hamza is essentially an entitled man who doesn’t know he is doing wrong. He feels he gives Badru freedom and that she will never leave him. His insecurity of money and status, coupled with the fact that his boss bullies him, comes out on Badru. When the character is saying sorry, he means it. My favourite scene is where he convinces her to return to him, luring her with the [promise of a] child. Men like Hamza will charm you into believing them. We wanted Vijay to bring the layers, and depict how men control women with manipulation.”

The dark comedy hasn’t gone down well with some men’s rights activists, who believe it promotes the idea of domestic violence against men. The call for boycott had started from stray groups on Twitter even before the movie was released. How does she react to it? “We are happy that people are talking about it. What is art for if not to trigger a conversation? If a conversation has begun, the film has done its job.”

Bhatt with director Reen