Imtiaz Ali reveals he had thought of casting Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Highway; reveals how he signed Alia Bhatt for the coveted role

Alia Bhatt had a decent debut with Student Of The Year (2012) but she got accepted as a fine performer with her second film Highway (2014), directed by Imtiaz Ali. During an interaction with Mayank Shekhar of Mid-Day, the acclaimed director revealed how Alia was not the first choice and that the character of Veera was of a different age.

Imtiaz said that he was looking to cast a woman in her 30s and that he was looking to cast “Aishwarya Rai, without the make-up, maybe. It was that kinda film.”

He explained how he changed his mind, “I met Alia at the screening of Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana (2012). Alia’s film had been released by then but I had not seen it. I started talking to her and realized that there’s a lot of warmth in her and her emotional quotient was high.”

He continued, “I stirred the conversation towards Highway. I started talking to her about home, society etc. I started to then hear her true voice. This is the voice that doesn’t change that much with age.”

He also said, “I wanted to cast a woman in her 30s who was more mature and who had had experiences in life that she was going to talk about in the film. But after meeting her, I realized that this is the emotional depth I was looking for.”

Imtiaz Ali added, “I gave her the 20-30 pager script. It was written like a novella. She didn’t call me for a day. Later, I realized that she was actually hesitant. I asked her if she liked it. She said, ‘I loved it’. The way she said ‘loved’ had a very hard feeling to it. When I asked her if she would do it, she replied, ‘Can we talk about it?’. This usually means that the actor doesn’t want to do it.”

But Imtiaz decided to speak to her, “I went to her house. Bhatt saab (father Mahesh Bhatt) told her, ‘You should do it. He’s a nice director (smiles)’!”

He also explained, “She was hesitant as she was not sure if she’d be able to do whatever was written in the script. She said, ‘There’s no scene in which I am not there’. I assured her not to worry.”

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