Age is just a number for Alia
Last week, Alia Bhatt (right) had unusual company, to say the least. But the actor found it “interesting” to spend a day at the TiE Global Summit in Delhi, which was also attended by entrepreneurs and businessmen such as Travis Kalanick (co-founder of Uber), Deep Kalra (chairman and group CEO of MakeMyTrip), Rana Kapoor (founder, managing director and CEO of Yes Bank) and Uday Kotak (executive vice-chairman and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank), among others. In the past, Aamir Khan has also been part of the summit.
“When I got the invitation, I was like, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to speak there? What am I going to say (laughs)?’ But I thought it was an interesting event to speak at because it’s about leaders and leadership,” says Alia, who was the only actor to speak at the summit.
“It was very cool. There were people from different walks of life. I’m learning a lot at these events by meeting different people, and also from the kind of questions people ask. It’s like you are being thrown into situations that aren’t your comfort zone,” she says.
Ask the 23-year-old if she ever feels too young at such talks, and she says, “Everyone asks me the same thing. On a TV show recently, I said that age is just a number for me. And, I feel this (talks at summits) is exactly what I should be doing.”
So, does she feel that the ‘Alia Bhatt jokes’ will be buried forever after her participation in such talks? “At the summit also, one person said, ‘Alia, you seem very smart.’ And then he asked me about these jokes and I said, ‘Now the jokes don’t matter [to me], because it’s a redemption for me when you say that I seem smart (laughs),’” she says.