Mahesh Bhatt says he was 'devastated' after seeing Alia Bhatt's performance in this film: 'I didn't understand...'

Mahesh Bhatt talked about the evolution of his daughter Alia Bhatt as an actor in the Hindi film industry in a recent interview. While he picked one of her performances which left him devastated, he also stated that he found Alia 'just a mannequin' in her debut film Student of the Year directed by Karan Johar in 2012.

In an interview with India Today, when Mahesh Bhatt was asked which is his favourite performance of her daughter Alia, he said, "I must say that I was devastated by Udta Punjab. I didn’t understand when did this girl, this Juhu girl exposed to our home, where we live like a normal family....how did this Juhu girl get the accent right of an adivasi from Chhattisgarh. It was amazing. I was astounded by that."

"Her raw power, and her ability to get into such a vulnerable space, and bare her heart. Highway and Udta Punjab...It was a departure from that girl who was just a mannequin in Student of the Year. You see the evolution in your child also", the multiple National Award-winning filmmaker added. Highway and Udta Punjab were directed by Imtiaz Ali and Abhishek Chaubey, respectively.

Mahesh Bhatt had directed his daughter Alia Bhatt in Sadak 2 in 2020. A sequel to his critically and commercially acclaimed film Sadak released in 1991, Alia-starrer was a direct-to-digital release on Disney+ Hotstar and received extremely negative reviews from audiences and critics for its poor script, screenplay, and dialogues.

The 2020 release also featured Sanjay Dutt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Jisshu Sengupta, Gulshan Grover and Mahesh's eldest daughter Pooja Bhatt in a special appearance. Mahesh Bhatt returned to direction after 21 years with Sadak 2 and has stated that he will never direct a film again.

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