Alia Bhatt admits she was ‘heartbroken’ after Inshallah with Salman Khan fell through; here's what SLB told her to do

Alia Bhatt is reveling in the feel of being a Sanjay Leela Bhansali heroine as the release date of Gangubai Kathiawadi draws closer. Looking back at her journey of Alia becoming an actress’ her collaboration with the visionary filmmaker has been a long time coming.

The filmmaker once wanted to cast an 11-year-old Alia opposite Ranbir Kapoor in a film titled Balika Badhu which he was working on. Eventually, the project never materialized but Ranbir went on to make his debut 5 years later with the filmmaker’s movie Saawariya .

Alia, on the other hand, first got the opportunity to work with Sanjay Leela Bhansali in Inshahallah which starred her and Salman Khan in the lead. As big as the collaboration was, the film went away as quickly as it came with Salman dropping out of the project.

While promoting Gangubai Kathiawadi, Alia has in an interview with PTI admitted that she was heartbroken when Inshallah failed to materialize. She also revealed what Sanjay Leela Bhansali told her.

Talking about her conversation with the filmmaker post-Inshallah getting shelved, Alia told the news agency, "But Sanjay sir, being true to his words, said I should take a break and that he has something for me. I went on a holiday and when I came back, he presented this script to me, which he had for a couple of years."

The actress further called collaborating with the filmmaker one of the ‘highest creative benchmarks’ an actor can achieve.

Alia plays the titular role of Kamathipura’s most respected madams and when the filmmaker approached her with the script which he worked on for a couple of years, it was an instant yes from the actress.

Set in the 1960s, Gangubai Kathiawadi is due to arrive in cinemas on 25 February after facing a few delays due to the pandemic.