Varun Dhawan has become a more secure actor: Alia Bhatt

Alia Bhatt is once again paired with Varun Dhawan in Badrinath Ki Dulhania. The actress talks about her character, the kind of equation she shares with Varun, and her upcoming projects.

Are you playing a contrasting character in the second part of Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania?

Humpty... was a simple story.  It was a happy love story. There were no twists and turns in it. My character was an ideal marriageable girl in the film. In Badri... my character has a mind of her own and is ambitious. She doesn't wish to get married to any random person. She is an intelligent woman. It is a different story and our characters are completely opposite to each other, so it takes time for them to get connected. 

Did you take any inspiration while portraying this role? 

Actually when I was discussing it with my director Shashank Khaitan, I asked him if he sees anything in me that is like the character I play. Give me some template for playing Vaidehi. He told me to imagine Kareena Kapoor' s character in 3 Idiots, though my character is not completely like that. Kareena's character would say what she is thinking and she had her own backstory and baggage. This is similar in that way. 

How did you work on your look?

She is a small town girl, we wanted to keep it Indian but you will see her wearing jeans, kurtas as well.  Since since she is from Rajasthan, we have used lot of bright colours. So Manish Malhotra has done clothes according to the requirement of the character. 

Do you find any change in Varun Dhawan over the years?

Varun is hyper, mad with energy. But at the end of the day, whenever he acts, it comes from his heart. He used to get too excited, agitated, now he has calmed down a lot. He has become more secure, more trusting of the director. On the sets he is not only thinking about himself, he looks at the film as a whole. He would think earlier about improvising scenes, now he is connecting this scene to that scene. He is really graphing his own performance. Varun and Shashank are a good combination.

Choreographer Saroj Khan apparently said that she has her doubts that you will match up to Madhuri Dixit in new version of Tamma Tamma song, what is your take on it?

I don’t think she is wrong ,if she thinks I won’t be able to match up to Madhuri , I don’t think I can either . She is a phenomenal dancer. I think it will be difficult for any actor to match up to her. About Sarojji being upset I don’t see why, I don’t know what we have done. It is not like we did it on purpose. Tamma Tamma belongs to her and she is a senior choreographer. When we were shooting a song, we were constantly talking about Saroj ji and that is the reason we retained original steps because we didn't want to majorly tamper with the choreography. We have retained the original voices too. Bappi da gave his blessings and with him we re-recorded the song. We went to Madhuri and Sanjay Dutt. It's not like we didn't want to reach out to Saroj-ji, but that didn't work out. Now she is upset, what can we say? 

Saif Ali Khan said in one of the interviews that he doesn’t want his daughter Sara to be next Alia Bhatt...

 Sara should not be Alia Bhatt anyway. She has personality of her own, I think she will be fabulous and she should be her own self.

Can you tell us bit about Dragon?

 I don’t know if I can confirm anything on that right now. But if it happens then I am really thrilled. It is going to be a dream come true to work with Mr. Amitabh Bachchan.

You will be paired with Ranveer Singh in Gully Boys, how is your equation with him?

He is absolutely crazy; I have done four commercials with him. He brings so much energy on the sets. He is very dedicated and hard working. We have always spoken about how we want to work together and now finally it is happening and I am really looking forward for it.

What is the update on Ashiqui 3?

It is at the writing stage, it will take some time for everything to take shape. It is not going to happen this year for sure.