The 2014 film ‘Highway’ was a sign of the marvellous work that was to come from Alia Bhatt. But she wasn’t Imtiaz Ali’s original choice. Join the director on the latest episode of Mid-day’s Sit With Hitlist series as he reveals that he initially wanted a mature woman to lead the drama, but changed his mind after meeting Alia. ‘Highway’ also featured actor Randeep Hooda.

Imtiaz met Alia at the screening of 'Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana' (2012) albeit he had not seen her debut film ‘Student of the Year’. He recalled, “I started talking to her and I realized that there's some warmth in her. Emotional quotient was very high and I was very drawn to talk to her and she was talking very nicely. I started to talk to her about deeper things about things like home, society, and sh*t like that just to draw her out into that kind and I started to hear her true voice.”