What Randeep said was true: Alia Bhatt

She's sung, danced and chirped her way through the popular promotions of Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania'. With co-star and close friend Varun Dhawan in tow, and a reported Shandaar' opposite Shahid Kapoor in her lap, Alia Bhatt is hoping to repeat her Midas touch this Friday. Here's a quick, on the go chat with Pinkvilla.

Since 2 States' has done so well, and Highway' also did quite well, do you feel some pressure before the release of Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania'?

There's always pressure, despite the success of 2 States'. Hopefully, I will never get too confident. It's a different film, so I am confident that people will see variation.

Being a romantic film, I think fans of love stories will enjoy it. It's been a while since a heartland love story, focused just on the romance between two people, has been seen.

Love has been shown, but with twists and turns. But in this film, there's no major twist or dramatic turn. It's the story of just two people who fall in love, and it's about them.

Tell us about your character Kavya, and preparing for it.

Kavya is from Ambala. She's based in Delhi and in Ambala. Honestly, initially I thought maybe I should take Punjabi diction classes. But my director Shashank told me that I don't need to train in a Punjabi accent. We aren't trying to create an overtly Punjabi character here.

The body language and dialogues were something that I picked up from watching Shashank say my dialogues. He has trained with Naseer Sir (Naseeruddin Shah), and when he delivers a dialogue, you see it coming alive naturally. He told me that each dialogue, each action for an actor has a motivation, it has an end goal, and you need to feel it.

This is something even Randeep told me, and I saw that during Highway'. He has trained with Naseeruddin Shah too. So just paying attention to Shashank, and observing him told me how to do this right, and I automatically developed the body language, the energy and natural flair of my character.

On the subject of Randeep Hooda, he mentioned in a recent interview that Alia Bhatt acted for the first time in Highway'. Do you take offence to that?

I don't take offence to that, I think he is right. Student of the Year' didn't show my acting skills, it probably established that I can dance well and can look good in clothes. It was a launch, a Dharma Productions launch. I think choosing SOTY was the best decision of my life.

With Highway' I won audience acceptance, for a role that required me to really act. It gave me a chance to prove my acting too, and critics also liked it. So I think what Randeep said was true. As a role, Highway' demanded a lot from me.

Varun Dhawan and you look pretty good together in the trailers. How much of that is drawn from real life?

Varun and I are very very close. I am very comfortable with him, and can be my absolute stupid self around him. We share a love-hate relationship and Kavya and Humpty also share a similar relationship. When they are together in a scene, it's like they are the only people around and there's no one else.

We did a lot of workshops and prep for the film, and we decided to play around this element of a love- hate relationship. So on set we would try to make additions and variations to the characters and their lines. With each take before the camera, your energy changes, and we caught on that. The line in the trailer about the party that Humpty invites Kavya to a party, was improvised.

Shashank doesn't like a lot of additions to dialogues, and doesn't like melodrama. So even if there is an emotional scene, he would like to break in the tension with a joke or a lighter moment. In real life too, when we have trouble, we do end up having a light moment wondering, My life is so messed up right now!'. The film also has moments and emotions like this.

You are clearly riding a crest at this moment. Do you feel your contemporaries, Parineeti Chopra and Shraddha Kapoor, get jealous of you, at times? Envies between heroines has been the norm in Bollywood so far.

No, if you are referring to Parineeti and Shraddha, what do they have to be jealous about. They have nothing to worry about. Parineeti is a fantastic actress, she has proven that she gets better with each role. Shraddha Kapoor has just delivered two back to back Rs.100 crore plus hits, and she is a sweetheart, Why would they envy me?!

I would like to believe we would become friends. I took out time to watch Ek Villain', and I called Shraddha and congratulated her immediately after the film. Parineeti and I are friends, we text quite often. In fact, recently Parineeti tweeted a picture of Varun and I, complimenting us that we look amazing. I don't think anyone can fake that. We genuinely appreciate each other's work.

Now that this year, you've made a lot of money for yourself and your producers, do you have plans of taking some time off?

(Laughs). I will do it at the end of the year. I will travel to Greece and I am very excited about that.

How have your parents reacted to Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania' so far?

My dad loves the new unplugged song, he is proud of me. When it comes to films, they choose to stay mum. After they watch a film of mine, they tell me if they liked something or not. That keeps me grounded at home, I think that's how it should be for I don't want them to be my first fan clubs.