Alia Bhatt

Alia Bhatt is a British actress of Indian descent who works predominantly in Hindi-language cinema and is known for playing women in difficult or unconventional circumstances.^[2] Born in Mumbai on 15 March 1993 into the Bhatt family of filmmakers, she grew up around the industry but built her career on roles that repeatedly pushed back against being seen only as a star's daughter.^[1] She holds a National Film Award and a joint-record six Filmfare Awards for Best Actress, alongside a Filmfare Critics Award for her first major dramatic role.^[1]

Her films have ranged from espionage drama and musical realism to a biopic of a Mumbai madam and two of the most expensive productions in Indian cinema.^[1] Outside acting, she runs the production company Eternal Sunshine Productions, co-founded the children's clothing brand Ed-a-Mamma, and has been a global ambassador for Gucci, L'Oreal Paris and Levi's.^[1] In 2024 Time magazine named her to its list of the 100 most influential people in the world, following a Time100 Impact Award in 2022.^[1]

In 2026 she starred in the YRF spy thriller Alpha, which released on 3 July 2026 to a weak box-office and critical response, and she is now preparing for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Love & War, scheduled for 21 January 2027, alongside her husband Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushal.^[1][4] In October 2026 she was announced as a presenter at the first Earthshot Prize ceremony to be held in India, taking place in Mumbai.^[5]

Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 in Bombay (now Mumbai) to the filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and the actress Soni Razdan.^[1] Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother has Kashmiri-Pandit and German roots, giving her a mixed heritage that she has spoken about in interviews.^[1] She is a granddaughter of the producer-director Nanabhai Bhatt, has an elder sister, Shaheen, and two half-siblings, Pooja and Rahul Bhatt, from her father's earlier marriage.^[1] The actor Emraan Hashmi and the director Mohit Suri are her paternal cousins.^[1]

She has described her upbringing as grounded rather than glamorous, saying she did not get the privileges people assumed came with being Mahesh Bhatt's daughter.^[1] She was not close to her father as a child; her mother raised her and her sister largely alone, and Bhatt has said she and her father only grew close once she became an actress herself.^[1] She studied at the Jamnabai Narsee School in Mumbai and left after the twelfth grade to focus on acting.^[1]

She appeared briefly as a child artist in her father's production Sangharsh (1999), playing a younger version of Preity Zinta's character, though she has said she remembers little of the experience.^[1] At nine she auditioned unsuccessfully for a part in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black (2005); three years later Bhansali cast her opposite Ranbir Kapoor for a film called Balika Vadhu, intended as both of their debuts, but the project was shelved before release.^[1] Her actual screen debut came instead in 2012.^[1]

Bhatt's first lead role came in Karan Johar's Student of the Year (2012), for which she lost 16 kg in three months to secure the part against 500 other candidates.^[1] Critical reaction was mixed, but the film was a commercial success and launched her alongside co-stars Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan.^[1] She followed it with Imtiaz Ali's Highway (2014), playing an abduction victim who develops a bond with her captor; the film underperformed commercially but won her the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress.^[1] Two further 2014 releases, 2 States and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, both crossed Rs 1 billion worldwide and established her as a bankable lead within Dharma Productions.^[1]

A run of acclaimed performances followed: Udta Punjab (2016), a crime drama about substance abuse that generated censorship controversy in India, won her a first Filmfare Best Actress award, and Raazi (2018), in which she played a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani army officer, led Box Office India to call her the most successful contemporary actress in Hindi cinema and earned her a second Best Actress trophy.^[1] She launched her own production company, Eternal Sunshine Productions, in 2019, the same year she appeared in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, which won a record 13 Filmfare Awards and brought her a third Best Actress win.^[1]

2022 was a turning point. She played the title role in Bhansali's Gangubai Kathiawadi, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and earned her the National Film Award for Best Actress alongside a fourth Filmfare trophy; she had a brief role in the Telugu blockbuster RRR; she produced and starred in the Netflix black comedy Darlings; and she closed the year opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva, one of the most expensive Indian films ever made and the highest-grossing Hindi release of that year.^[1] Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023) brought a fifth Best Actress award, tying a long-standing record, and she made her English-language debut the same year in the Netflix spy film Heart of Stone opposite Gal Gadot.^[1]

Jigra (2024), an action thriller she produced and starred in as a woman trying to rescue her brother from an overseas prison, brought her a sixth Filmfare Best Actress award, making her the record holder in the category.^[1] In 2026 she joined the YRF Spy Universe with Alpha, playing a genetically enhanced soldier who goes rogue; the film released on 3 July 2026 and underperformed at the box office, with some critics questioning her fit for the action-heavy role.^[1] She is next set to appear in Bhansali's Love & War, which wrapped filming in 2026 and is scheduled for a worldwide release on 21 January 2027, and has also been linked to a horror sequel to Tumbbad.^[1]

Bhatt was previously linked to her Student of the Year co-star Sidharth Malhotra, though she did not confirm the relationship publicly until after it had ended.^[1] In 2018, Ranbir Kapoor, her co-star in Brahmastra, revealed that the two were dating.^[1] They married on 14 April 2022 in a traditional Hindu ceremony at their home in Mumbai, and their daughter, Raha, was born on 6 November that year.^[1] Bhatt has said the experience of becoming a mother shortly before filming Jigra directly shaped how she approached that role.^[1] In October 2026 she spoke at a Mijwan Welfare Society fundraiser about Raha "bossing everybody around" at home.^[5]

In 2024, Bhatt revealed that she had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.^[1] She lives mainly in Mumbai and also keeps a home in London, and holds British citizenship through her mother.^[1] She has spoken about facing persistent online criticism over nepotism in the Hindi film industry, including backlash tied to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in 2020, and has said that the discomfort of such criticism is a small price for the career she has built.^[1]

She supports animal-welfare causes through her initiative CoExist, founded in 2017, and was named PETA India's Person of the Year in 2021 for her advocacy work.^[1] She has also worked with Aamir Khan's Paani Foundation on drought relief in Maharashtra and has run fundraising campaigns for the Salaam Bombay Foundation, which supports underprivileged adolescents.^[1] In October 2026 she was confirmed as a presenter at the first Earthshot Prize Awards Night held in India, in Mumbai, alongside Rami Malek, Sachin Tendulkar and Simone Ashley.^[5]

Estimates of her wealth vary across publications: some 2026 reports place her net worth near US$50 million (about Rs 350-430 crore), while others cite figures closer to Rs 550-600 crore. Fortune India's inaugural Most Valuable Celebrities list placed her brand value at about Rs 1,606 crore in 2026. Because these are unaudited estimates that differ by source, they should be treated as approximate.^[6]