Alia Bhatt auditioned for Black when she was 9 years old, recalls Sanjay Leela Bhansali saw 'fire in her eyes'

Alia Bhatt, who is marking her first project with Sanjay Leela Bhansali with her upcoming film Gangubai Kathiawadi, has revealed that she tried to work with him several years ago.

The actor recently said that she had auditioned for a role in a Sanjay Leela Bhansali's movie 19 years ago when she was just 9-years-old. In a video from the recently-held Berlin International Film Festival that has been doing the rounds on social media, Alia is heard hailing the director as her 'biggest inspiration'. She said that she had wanted to work for him for a long time.

"My biggest inspiration before I began the film and through my film was my director sitting right here. I wanted to be directed by him ever since I was 9-years-old. That’s when I first walked into his house to audition for another film he was making at that time," she said.

The 28-year-old revealed that she had auditioned for Black, a Rani Mukherji and Amitabh Bachchan starrer that was released in 2005. Alia recalled that though her audition did not go well, the director saw ‘a fire’ in her eyes at the time.

She said, "I was terrible, which is why I did not get the part. But he looked at me, and he narrates that story even now, he looked into my eyes and said to himself that ‘she is going to be a heroine, a big actor someday. He saw that fire in my eyes when I was 9 years old. I remember very clearly from that time onwards, my one point focus became one day I have to be directed by him."

Also Read: When Alia called her Gangubai Kathiawadi co-star Shantanu a ‘hottie’

She recalled the story in an Instagram Live with singer Shreya Ghosal as well, revealing that Sanjay told her at the time, “Ye child actor nahi hai. Ye heroine hai (She is not a child actor. She is a heroine).”

The actor had previously also praised Bhansali's filmmaking, noting that Gangubai Kathiawadi should only be viewed in theatres instead of OTT platforms. She told Indian Express, "Everybody is aware of Sanjay sir’s films and cinematography. The way he puts his films together on celluloid, they are a visual spectacle. Gangubai is also the kind of film where you need to get involved and experience it, as opposed to pause it and do something and come back. That feeling of watching a film together with strangers in a theatre is a magical experience."