Originally posted by: Mallika-E-Bhais
This is a nice IV but I don't think Pooja & Alia are that different esp personality-wise, they've those bold & no-nonsense Bhatt genes in common for one, lol. THeyre both superbly headstrong & very bold & know their minds. Where Alia differs from Pooja is that she plays the dumb, huh?i-am-Alice-In-The-Wonderland lost in this big bad world routine well. She does seem very uninformed & well, a bit dumb but she certainly exaggerates that to her cunning advantage. Pooja never did that & gleefully loved informing the world of all her conquests because it also might've served her- She was very sexually experienced bold the femme fatale in an industry full of simpering "innocent Virgins." Where also they differ is that, Alia seems far more ambitious than Pooja ever did/has oppurtunity in terms of having a powerful mentor like KJo supporting her/case of being at the right place at the right time etc. Or maybe she just has the great luck doing the movies she wanted to but Pooja never did? She seems more talented than Pooja too but I've only seen a few movies of Pooja so I can't make a fair comparison. She was very good in Zakhm!
They're more alike than I think we take them to be & I don't think Pooja would've cosseted her with sweet words if she wasn't a popular & acclaimed star. I doubt there was much love between them before this.. Or maybe I am being my usual cynical self.
Mahesh Bhatt is Mahesh Bhatt. Who can understand this modern-day self-proclaimed "philosopher." Loool.
Great views, Mallika. I liked Pooja a lot in the 90s when I was a kid and so thought of sharing this interview as it showed the generation gap in sisters with Pooja and Alia (even though Alia is young enough to be Pooja's daughter!).
Pooja was definitely unconventional in her time, like you said she was very open and bold about controversial topics like sexuality etc when most 90s heroines would pretend to be sati-savitri in real life as well. I think Pooja (like she herself mentioned) really just ended up stumbling into acting, and her raw-ness and unconventional-ness helped in all the movies she did with Mahesh Bhatt in the 90s (Tamanna, Phir Teri Kahaani Yaad Aayi, Zakhm etc) but she couldn't really pull off the conventional Bollywood heroine song-and-dance stuff that Alia is well suited for, and so Pooja ended up moving behind the camera.
Alia is definitely ambitious and (IMO) far more driven as an actress than Pooja was, and I do agree that while Pooja was talented, I think Alia is equally if not more talented. Zakhm was a tough role and Pooja did well in the tough/intense characters but Alia seems more versatile and is still very young, and as you rightly mentioned has KJo to bring her all the roles she wants. Still, pulling off an Udta Punjab and a Highway is no mean feat - Alia is definitely one of the more talented star kids.
They are definitely similar in the ways you mentioned, I was talking more about how they differed as actors / in their acting approach. Pooja definitely played more of herself in her movies (unconventional and raw roles etc) and Alia, though still young and relatively inexperienced, is trying to be versatile and get in to her characters. Towards the end of this interview, Alia talked about how she doesn't want to play herself on the screen and wants to immerse herself in the character, whereas Pooja replied that she sees a bit of Alia in all the characters she plays (when she runs in Highway, and how she was trying to get rid of the effect of the drugs in Udta Punjab) - so it was a nice parallel to what everyone keeps calling 'natural' v/s 'method' acting and that the two aren't as different as everyone thinks they are.
I think Pooja and Alia weren't as close growing up because of the half-sister thing (well, they wouldn't be as close like say Lolo-Bebo are, Bebo obviously adores Lolo whereas Alia likes Pooja but doesn't seem to be adoring/caring towards Pooja). They seem cordial more than anything and seems like Shaheen, their other sister, is the common link between them.
Mahesh Bhatt is Mahesh Bhatt lol agreed, I liked how he took a backseat in this interview and let Pooja and Alia talk more.
Edited by lovemango - 9 years ago
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