Ahead of the much anticipated release of their film Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva (2022) on 9 September, the film’s stars Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor came together for IMDb’s Burning Questions interview.
Written, produced, and directed by Ayan Mukerji, the fantasy adventure film is currently trending at number one on the IMDb Most Anticipated New Indian Movies and Shows list.
The real-life couple, who are expecting their first child together, revealed their favourite performance of each other, along with the exact moment they became the other’s fan, in the IMDb original video.
Kapoor was proud of Bhatt’s performances in 2022. He shared, “She's probably had the best year any artist has ever had, in the history of actors. She's had Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022), she's had RRR (2022), she's had Darlings (2022). And now she's going to have Brahmāstra. The obvious choice would be Gangubai, but I actually became a fan of Alia from her second film onwards, and that was Highway (2014).”
He added, “I was really looking forward to this film and I actually saw it at the edit. I just knew that this was the birth of an actor which is probably… Indian cinema and world cinema weren’t ready for. I hadn’t seen an actor deliver what she did in that film and I think I became a huge admirer of her work since then.”
Meanwhile, Bhatt revealed that Anurag Basu’s Barfi! (2012) is her favourite Ranbir performance. She said, “I think it is just so simple, funny at the same time, so heartbreaking. He literally did not speak through the film, did everything through his eyes, and that was the most beautiful part. It is one of my favourite, most impactful Ranbir Kapoor performances.”
While Brahmāstra is their first film together, the Hindi feature has turned them into a family. “Brahmāstra has been part of our DNA now,” Kapoor explained. “It’s been five years. Ayan, Alia, and me are also really close friends, so on every occasion in our lives, if it’s a birthday, if it’s Diwali, if it’s Christmas, if it’s our marriage, we were always talking about Brahmāstra. So, it never really left our system.”
Bhatt elaborated on their equation with Mukerji, “He’s our best friend but he’s also, like, a true principal. A taskmaster. He really makes sure the work is done and that’s the most amazing part with him, that hard work and Ayan are synonymous with each other. He expects that with every crew member and we, at the end of the day, are just crew members and he’s the visionary.”
She also teased a bit about what the audience can expect with the film. “We’ve been seeing the film over the years, little by little, in its raw form, and every time I watch the film, it’s a different experience,” Bhatt shared. “That’s something that I’m always surprised by. There’s so much newness and there are so many elements that you’re just not expecting, that surprise is genuinely one of your dominating emotions.”
Watch Bhatt and Kapoor answer some “Burning Questions” in this exclusive IMDb interview here.