Alia Bhatt

I am immensely proud to be here tonight as a representative of my country, a country that has built both me and my career. India is a country that at its core values diversity above anything else, and it's a song that I hope to sing all over the world. Good evening. Thank you Time for this honor.

Honestly, to be awarded here tonight amongst some of the finest people in the world feels, wonderfully overwhelming. Also a bit of, feel a tiny bit of pressure, you know? Pressure to say something, intelligent, to be good and really make an impact.

I've been thinking a lot about what it means to make an impact, and I've been wondering whether if when I started out I did so with the intention of making an impact. And the answer is yes. I mean, I think 10 years ago when I started working, all I thought about was how I would one day take over the world.

How everyone everywhere would know who I am and how hardworking and talented and and and intelligent and bright and flawless I am. Woo! Really, I wanted to be perfect, and I wanted the world to know it. 10 years later, I'm receiving one of the most prestigious awards on this global platform.

Whoop. And I have no idea how I got here or what I've done to deserve this. But what I do know is if it falls to me in any way to lead by example, be a role model, or make any kind of impact, I want to do it in a as human and as flawed a way as possible.

Because after all these years, the thing I've realized it is that it's the flaws that make you. Perfection is boring. Like, really boring. So tonight I want to take a moment with you all to celebrate my flaws along with my strengths.

For example, I'm terrible at spelling. Like, really bad. But I do know what to say to someone who's vulnerable. I have no sense of geography, zero, and I do not get directions, but I have a deep sense of respect and regard for different cultures.

My general knowledge is widely known to be weak. But my emotional intelligence is something that I've worked really hard to cultivate. I have a tendency to be hard on myself with regards to my weight and my appearance, but I never say no to a french fry.

Whoo. Because, you know, YOLO. Through my movies and my characters, I've tried to celebrate flawed people because at the end of the day, it's the imperfections that make a character compelling. So what I'm trying to say is being yourself is truly the greatest impact that you can make.

In the movies and in life, you do not have to be perfect. You just have to bring everything you have, the lows, the highs, and the real things that we're actually afraid of speaking about. There is no greater impact than being yourself.

I wanna end with a few thank yous. Thank you to you all for patiently listening to me. Thank you to my team for constantly being there for me.

Thank you to my family, my mom for bringing me onto this planet, my father, my sister Shaheen, who has helped put my thoughts into words, my husband Ranbir. I mean, I don't know what. I need to give them separate award to genuinely put up with me on a daily basis.

Whoo. I am immensely proud to be here tonight as a representative of my country, a country that has built both me and my career. India is a country that at its core values diversity above anything else, and it's a song that I hope to sing all over the world.

And lastly, when it comes to making an impact, I hope I can continue to do so in whatever way possible, but for now, tonight, this award has genuinely made an impact on me and my little one who has relentlessly kicked me through this speech. Thank you so much. Have a good night.

You come from a film family and have achieved everything at such a young age. Today at 24, you know, is it, too good too soon as a phenomena you think? I have to say that whenever people ask me about my achievements, Karan, about how, you know, you're doing so well, how do you feel, you're doing this, you're doing that, to me, I'm just doing.

I have no idea of how well I'm doing, and what that means for me and whether this is too good too soon, or whether I'm going to burn out. I think that if I sit back and assess every step I take, then I'm gonna be taking myself way too seriously.

All I wanna do is give a lot of heart into all my performances, into every character that I play, and I want to be remembered for the movies that I'm a part of and the characters that I play because that's the kind of impact movies had on me as a child. So I wanna be giving. I want to be that impact on the younger generation and the older generation and everybody.

So yeah, I never look at myself as a, as a third person. I'm just going with the flow, as they say. So I think definitely initially I was, I was very vulnerable, and I was, also very hungry to prove and make a point.

And I want to say with age, but I don't think I should say that since I'm 24. But maybe with experience and just as you said, I've been working since I'm 17. But in the last two years, there just came a bit of a realization to me, and that is the only constant in life is change.

Mm. So today I may be getting a lot of love. Tomorrow I won't, maybe. Today I may be getting a lot of hate.

Tomorrow I won't, maybe. So some things You know, our, like some days you may wake up and say that, "Okay, you know, I wish I had, being better at this," or "I have a better, you know, I had better diction. I had better this."

I can always talk about what I don't have and what I'm, you know, what I can do better. But instead of whining about how they're comparing me to people, I can just better it. Right. And I can just try to be the better version of myself.

Yeah. So definitely, I'm super detached from my work, and I don't want to get too attached to even the person that I am today. When people come up to me and say, "You know, you're so inspiring," and all of those things, and what I do for other people, I feel really happy. I feel grateful. I take a moment to remember that, okay, this is something that.

This is what you really work for, to make an impact. But then that, instantly I you know, I just like snap out of it, and I said, I just tell myself that this is not gonna be there tomorrow.

And as a young Indian woman, Alia, is there a sense of responsibility you have, to your country, to, you know, to other women who are inspired by you to younger girls, you know, who feel like, you know, you are their role model? How much of that ethos really creeps into your thoughts when you take on a film or you know, are on a public platform?

How much of that are you conscious of? So when I take on a film, I don't keep the audience in mind, and I don't think I should as well because then I would, that would make my decisions very calculated and very boring. I go with my gut and I go with my heart.

I like to promote the idea of people can make mistakes. That is okay, and as a celebrity, I'm still a human being. I know what I do, and I really am not embarrassed of that because if I don't say I don't know, how am I gonna know?

Like, if I don't ask the questions, how am I gonna get the answers? Up until a particular time, I was constantly scared, and that was the time before I had failed. I've had done 10 films, and ​​ one has been not a good film, and it did not do well.

Until that time, I was always really scared, very passionate, very like, you know, like obsessive. The minute that happened, I. It's like my father told me, I became immortal again.

So when you touch success, you feel like you're immortal all of a sudden, and that could happen to anybody, which is why people are constantly telling me, "Please, you know, keep your head on your shoulders. Don't fly too high." And I was like, "What are they saying?

Why are they saying this?" And then I realized that, okay, things can change. Your films cannot do well.

You cannot do well, and suddenly everything changed after that, and I was just brought back to ground zero, and everything after that is not. I would not say detached, like I'm not passionate about my work, and I don't feel like. Like if today, if I don't have a good day at work, I'll come back home, and I will be stressed out about it.

I won't be happy, and I'll, like, I'll give 200% the next day. But I can say I'm a very. I'm quite objective of the work that I do.

And I go with my gut, and I try to play around. So if I overthink my steps, then it's like, you know, you're taking yourself too seriously, and that'll show on the screen. Okay, you know, she thinks she's a very good actor.

But the minute I really believe in my part and my character, that just gives me that kind of ease to play with it and just, you know, have fun with it.