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.”