Alia Bhatt walked onto the BAFTA stage, presented a global award, and still somehow ended up in the dock — not for anything she said on camera during the ceremony, but for a fleeting expression in a post-event interview. Now she’s responded. And in classic Alia fashion, her answer is disarming, a little chaotic, and oddly self-aware in ways the internet might have missed entirely.
The Clip That Broke the Internet
At the 79th British Academy Film Awards, Alia Bhatt made history as one of the rare Bollywood stars to present at the prestigious ceremony, handing out the Best Film Not in the English Language award. It should have been a clean, triumphant moment for Indian cinema’s global footprint.
Instead, what went viral was a candid post-event interview in which she was asked to name a film with a standout plot twist. Alia paused — visibly — before landing on Gone Girl. That pause was all the internet needed.
Social media lit up almost instantly. Viewers questioned whether she had actually seen the film. Others called her response hesitant, awkward, performative. Some suggested she was trying too hard to project the polished, global-star persona that red carpets demand. The clip racked up views not because of what she said, but because of the half-second before she said it.
What Was Actually Happening in Her Head
Alia addressed the uproar in a candid conversation with fashion commentator Diet Sabya. Her explanation is worth reading in full — not paraphrased — because the texture of it tells you something about how these moments actually work.
“Why is it being talked about so much? Is it because of my expression?” she began, seemingly genuinely puzzled by the scale of the reaction.
She then walked through the mental process happening in real time during the interview. She hadn’t rewatched Gone Girl since it came out — roughly a decade ago — and when the interviewer started referencing specific scenes, her brain was doing live archaeology. “I was going back in my head that oh ya, that monologue, correct correct correct,” she said, describing how she mentally reconstructed scenes from a film she’d loved but hadn’t revisited in years.
It’s actually a familiar experience for anyone who’s ever been put on the spot about a film they watched years ago. The difference is most people aren’t doing it under studio lighting with a camera inches away.
The “Cool Girl” Moment Nobody’s Talking About
Here’s the detail that deserves more attention. In wrapping up her response, Alia said: “I am a cool girl. I am a sweet girl. But I could be… I am more sweet than I am cool. Actually, I don’t think I am cool. I am uncool girl, my sister would say that.”
Gone Girl‘s most quoted lines are its “Cool Girl” monologue — a searing, darkly comic passage about women performing an effortless, undemanding version of themselves for men’s benefit. Whether Alia landed on that phrasing deliberately or by pure accident, the irony is almost too neat. She was being criticised for not performing cool convincingly enough. Her rebuttal included the words “I am a cool girl.” From Gone Girl. The film at the centre of the entire controversy.
Intentional or not, it’s the most interesting sentence in this whole story.
The Bigger Pattern Behind the Backlash
This isn’t the first time a prominent Indian actress has been put under a microscope on a Western awards stage. Deepika Padukone’s Cannes jury appearances, Priyanka Chopra’s global red carpet moments — each has generated a peculiar cycle in which Indian audiences simultaneously take pride in the visibility and then dissect every word, expression, and outfit choice with surgical intensity.
The standard being applied is impossible by design. Be globally fluent but stay relatable. Project confidence but don’t seem like you’re trying. Know every film ever made. React perfectly. On camera. Immediately.
Alia Bhatt presenting at BAFTA — as the star of Gangubai Kathiawadi, one of Hindi cinema’s most acclaimed performances of recent years — was genuinely significant. That’s the story that deserved the headline. A slightly hesitant expression got there first.
What’s Next for Alia Bhatt
None of this slows down what is shaping up to be one of the busiest periods of her career. Alia is leading Alpha, the latest entry in YRF’s ambitious Spy Universe — a female-fronted action thriller directed by Shiv Rawail, co-starring Bobby Deol and Sharvari Wagh, expected to release next year.
She is also at the centre of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Love & War, a sweeping dramatic romance alongside Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushal. Two of the most anticipated Hindi films currently in the pipeline. One BAFTA controversy that lasted less than a week.
Whether the backlash was fair or not almost doesn’t matter anymore. Alia’s response — unscripted, self-deprecating, and accidentally literary — was probably the best possible answer. The internet will move on. The films won’t.
