Pooja Bhatt provides valuable insights into how her sister, Alia Bhatt, navigates her flourishing career and the art of striking a balance between personal and public life.
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00:00 I know you will be honest, very honest.
00:03 Do you really feel that following your heart 100%?
00:06 Well, I mean, frankly, I don't know any other way of being.
00:11 So I can't like people say when people tell me, Oh, you know, that was such a courageous
00:14 thing to do.
00:15 You spoke about this.
00:16 So I said, I can't take credit for that.
00:19 It is my nature.
00:20 I can't when I speak up for a woman, I speak up for myself.
00:24 When I speak up for a cause, I speak up for myself.
00:26 I'm not I'm no saint here.
00:28 But I think that, you know, it's something that I've inherited from my father.
00:31 And it's something that, thank God, my sister Alia has not, because that's the reason she's
00:35 so successful.
00:36 Because she knows exactly what to share, what not to share, what to put out there, what
00:40 to not put out there.
00:42 But I think that I've learned that it's only when you're authentic, and you are speaking
00:48 from your heart, does it get communicated.
00:50 Now when I look back at my life, I'm 51 now, you know, I mean, I'm enjoying what they call
00:55 the fourth season of fame.
00:57 In our business, they say that you know, there are four seasons of any artist.
01:00 First they say, Oh, the she has potential, or he has potential, then they say, Oh, she's
01:06 arrived, then they say she's over.
01:09 And then they say she's back.
01:11 So I've given up acting for 21 years.
01:12 And I came back with a show called Bombay Begums again, where Alankrita Srivastava and
01:17 Bordnila Jatruji wanted to cast me because of the life I've led.
01:21 You know, they were like, you've been away from from the front of the camera for the
01:23 last 21 years.
01:24 And it's what you stand for.
01:26 And what resonates in your heart is that's what we want to cast.
01:31 So I think I live there's no alternate offer for a lived life, especially for an artist.
01:37 You know, an artist cannot be a prisoner, not to themselves, not to a reputation.
01:42 I think that with enough courage, you can do without a reputation.
01:45 And we have that liberty as artists, and we should we should take take take that more.
01:49 So I just feel that the world has been quite fair.
01:52 The media has been quite fair.
01:54 And the ones who who somewhere in their hearts do understand, but their agenda is not to
02:00 you can't change their mind no matter what you do.
02:03 But I think what's always moved me is when I've traveled through India, and I've met
02:06 women from diverse backgrounds who might not have remembered the films I've done.
02:11 But they remembered an interview of mine or what I've said when I've spoken up for something
02:16 that the rest of my industry or my breath in did not at that point, because I guess
02:22 they had more to lose than I did.
02:24 You know, I think that resonates and it reaches people, because eventually what you are gets
02:30 communicated, not what you say you are, you know, and I think that it's too tiring to
02:36 play this game of, you know, trying to pretend to be somebody that I'm not and then, you
02:40 know, try to get you to like me for what I'm not and then I go home.
02:43 And that burden I can't be bothered.
02:46 So I'm a great actor when the camera rolls, but I'm no good when it's off.
02:50 You know, I have a feminist who I grew up with besides my mother, I grew up with the
02:54 greatest feminist of them all called Mahesh Bhatt.
02:57 I mean, he's the greatest feminist of them all.
02:58 So he he wanted to crash land our party, by the way.
03:02 So I told him you can't.
03:04 But I think that for me, it's very humbling to be here.
03:08 And I think that the fact that you're listen, and the fact that something resonated and
03:12 you notice them, and I like I love her because she's a completely inappropriate woman.
03:18 That's why I'm here.
03:19 But I think that we should I have done things better, probably told the line, walk the line,
03:25 it may might have gotten me a hit film year or maybe two more jobs there.
03:29 But it would not have done anything for my soul.
03:33 It would not have added to my growth.
03:34 So I think my belittling failures, my times of isolation, the times of the world is turn
03:40 its back on me, supposedly, that is where I found my wealth.
03:44 That is where I found my core.
03:47 And I would not trade that for anything in the world.
03:50 Wow.
03:51 So raw and real.
03:52 Yeah, I mean, I've realized that growth and comfort do not go together.
03:57 So you know, I'm good with discomfort.
03:59 I do not shirk pain.
04:00 I do not say why me anymore.
04:02 There was a time I would say why me?
04:05 I'm like, there's a reason it's me.
04:08 You know, if you believe in a power above, it's chosen you because you're capable and
04:11 something beautiful comes from that.
04:13 So I think that it's the darkest nights that have kind of given me the maximum light.
04:18 Thank you.
04:24 (dramatic music)