More than Alia Bhatt’s sister

Relevance is a b***h, says Pooja Bhatt, who at 52 has lost none of the fire she had as a young woman navigating the film industry in the ’90s. Though she jokingly says today’s youngsters know her better as Alia Bhatt’s sister, Pooja is still very much an icon, whether it is acing her role as a banker in Netflix’s Bombay Begums, baring her soul on Bigg Boss, or now being the society-shaping teacher in Prime Video’s exceptional new series Big Girls Don’t Cry. As Anita Verma, the headmistress of an all-girls boarding school, yesterday’s rebel star is a surprisingly good role model, both on and off the set. Much of it is because of her own school, JB Petit High School for Girls, says Pooja, where the emphasis was what you had in your head and heart and not what you wore or carried. “It’s the stuff you were made up of, not the trappings of success,” she says. Playing Verma was refreshing for Pooja. “She doesn’t wear her tragedy like a crown, much like the unsaid rule for actors is don’t bring your personal drama to the set,” she says, adding she was terrified of the haircut the show creator Nitya Mehra imposed on her, but she wore it like armour. “Seeing these young girls on the cusp of entering the film industry, before they are battered by it, so untarnished while they keep their bonds alive, is such a great feeling. There is genuine camaraderie between them,” she adds. And chosen from 4,000 girls who auditioned for the eight main parts, they couldn’t have had a more honest and clearminded mentor in Pooja. For Mehra and Sudhanshu Saria, another of the directors on the show, it was a call to action to all young women on how to be themselves in the world out there. “It’s a kiss to Little Women, and a tribute to my mother and my own headmistress at Welham Girls,” says Mehra.

Lohia’s Moment on Screen

One of the best things about Prime Video’s new movie, Ae Watan Mere Watan, is the screen presence of Ram Manohar Lohia, a great socialist leader who has largely been forgotten. When director Kannan Iyer and writer Darab Farooqui were researching the story of Usha Mehta, who ran Congress Radio under challenging circumstances for a brief period during the Quit India movement, they found Lohia’s role to be inspiring. “Lohia is a leader that Darab and I admire. So we were excited about showing him in a feature film for the first time,” says Iyer. From talking to various people, who carried an oral history about him, Farooqui found that Lohia was both friend and mentor to his saathis. “I felt Emraan [Hashmi] would pull this off with the requisite gravitas of a legendary leader, and with a light touch. When I worked with Emraan in Ek Thi Daayan, I realised what a skilled actor he is, with a vast still-to-be-explored potential. So when we were casting for Lohia, my mind immediately went to Emraan. In my mind’s eye, shorn of facial hair, and wearing a Gandhi topi, he would easily have a resemblance to the legendary freedom fighter. The Lohia character needed a combination of youthfulness, charm, humour. Much like Emraan,” adds Iyer. It all started with a rather brief news article on Usha Mehta, which Farooqui brought to Iyer’s attention a few years ago. Her extremely inspirational character, coupled with the story of a clandestine radio station against the all-powerful British Empire, excited them both. When they delved into it more, they realised that there was no book on the subject. Hence they did archival research at Cambridge University, the National Archives, and the Maharashtra State Archives. A book, Congress Radio: Usha Mehta and the Underground Radio Station of 1942 by Usha Thakkar, came out only after they had independently completed both their research and the script. “While retaining the essence of the historical event, we took creative liberty to craft a thriller, coupled with deep emotional drama. Hence the final script is not a biopic. It is not based on Usha Mehta and Congress Radio. It is inspired by them,” adds Iyer.

Scene and Heard

Anjana Vasan, who was last seen in the widely appreciated Black Mirror episode ‘Demon 79’ in 2023, is back as a seemingly goofball detective in Wicked Little Letters, a delicious comedy of manners with Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley. Vasan, a Chennai-born Singaporean of Tamil origin, is a rising star, having won an Olivier for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Almeida Theatre.

Anjana VasanBollywoodcinemaKannan IyerPooja Bhatt