I am not dating Varun: Alia Bhatt
Actor Alia Bhatt, who was rumoured to be dating her Student of the Year co star Varun Dhawan, has rubbished the reports. The actress says that the two are just friends and that's the end of it.
Actor Alia Bhatt, who was rumoured to be dating her Student of the Year co star Varun Dhawan, has rubbished the reports. “We are not dating. We are just friends and that’s the end of it,” she says. The 20-year-old will be next seen in director Imtiaz Ali’s Highway, alongside Randeep Hooda. “Working with Imtiaz was intense. I learnt a lot from him and the experience was enriching.”
About working with Randeep, she says, “Randeep is a fantastic co-star to work with. He gave me so much of time and space to act upon. Working with him was another tangent I want to add to my learning curve.”
Alia, who is the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, says she hasn’t asked for any acting advice from her father.
“Till now I haven’t felt the need to ask him for his advice. But that doesn’t mean I’ll not take it when the time is right... if I ever face a problem, dad is the first person I’ll go to,” says the actor, who is the new face of Maybelline and features in its babylips kiss song.
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Director Imtiaz Ali, who has redefined romance in Bollywood by giving lovable, relatable characters to audiences, says he is intrigued by the story of his latest venture, Highway, and by the fact that it has refused to leave him all these years. “I intended this to be my first film. I thought of it while I was directing TV serials.
Over the years, I wrote the script, forgot about it and continued to visit it time and again but I would always end up doing other movies,” Ali said. “After I finished Rockstar, I realised that I will keep postponing Highway forever unless I jumped into it right now,” Ali adds, who has completed 70 per cent of the film.
Starring Randeep Hooda and Alia Bhatt, Highway is co-produced by Ali and Sajid Nadiadwala under a new banner, White Window. It is slated to release on December 13 this year. The director believes it is his most honest work till date. “I wanted to do it in a very pure manner and not contaminate it because sometimes your own incapacity as a storyteller comes in the way and you think of shortcuts. I am also trying to discover what it is that this story has always been in my mind. What is so intensely fascinating about it that I have not let it go,” he says.
As the name suggests, Highway captures the journey of two completely opposite people who are thrown together by fate. Ali is confident that Randeep and Alia fit the bill perfectly. “I was looking for a very city girl for the character of Veera Tripathi. She is a rich girl who is thrown into the wild and Alia comes from there. Randeep is fit as Mahabir Bhati, who comes from the wild. He is gujjar from the semi-criminal dark zone,” says Ali.
(With inputs from PTI)