45 minutes agoAuthor: Ashish Tiwari
- Copy link
Actress and singer Alia Qureshi is an emerging artist in the industry. In the Amazon Prime Series ‘Bandish Bandits-2’, the actress caught everyone’s attention with her acting. Prior to this, she has appeared in Shah Rukh Khan’s film ‘Jawan’.
Recently she also appeared in Netflix’s film ‘Nadaniyan’. Apart from acting, Alia is also associated with music. She also writes and sing songs. The actress has had a special conversation with Dainik Bhaskar about her acting journey and her experiences in Bollywood.
Alia received a nomination of Best Supporting Actress in IIFA 2025 for performance in ‘Bandish Bandits-2’.
There is no music field in your house, so how did you choose this field?
Nobody used to sing professionally in my house. Yes, my parents sing well. In such a situation, he promoted music from childhood. I was only active in singing besides studying in school. I wrote my first song in the fifth class. The inspiration behind that song was a dead frog.
The story is something like that me and my friends found a dead frog in the school basketball court. When we all went to him, then there was a stir in his body. At that time, I came out of my mouth, oh my God it’s cumming alive. My friends liked that line very much.
In this way my first song came to comeing Alaive. I kept my first song title inspired by that incident. Since then I have been writing continuously.
You put a jhili in your name. What is the story behind it?
My parents started calling me Jhali. He used to call me Jhali in negative sense. He did not like the way to wear my clothes. He used to tell me why do you wear clothes like Jhli? Wear clothes like girls. I used to tell them that I am Jhili, what is evil in this?
For me, Jhli means to be care free, crazy, a little different, independent. In such a situation, whenever I used to call me a jhili, I used to take it as praise. I have tried to live this word in my artist life.
Alia has shared the screen with Shah Rukh in the film ‘Jawa’.
Tell us about your first song ‘Preity’. How did its idea come?
In the year 2018, I brought my first song ‘Preity’. At that time I was in college. At that time I was performing with my rock band in Los Angeles. Seeing me, people often used to make the opinion that I am Preity, so I should be behaved in the same way. I am very much confused by this and such thinking.
People impose their thinking on others. The concept of my song ‘Preity’ came from here that I am not a storm. I do not listen to people.
However, no one listened to this song. The biggest fear of an artist is whether people will like their work or not. This did not happen in my case either. People did not listen.
Well, it was good in a way. When no one heard ‘Preity’, the pressure of what people would say from inside me came out. Self -confidence of making good music came in me.
What has been the reason for going towards sannyas and Vipassana at such a young age?
I grew up in Mumbai. This is what I schooling is done. I went to Los Angeles for college. There I studied psychology and music. I learned to write and perform music. I am very sensitive since childhood. I have realized people’s grief and pain. I used to cry after seeing the sufferings of others. I used to see that there are so many rich people in Mumbai and there are such a large number of people who do not have homes around their house. This difference used to make me restless.
Seeing all this, I started wondering why I am here? Why do I have everything? Why do I get the opposite? All these things were eating me from inside. Seeing the difference of rich-poverty, I could not sleep. With all these complications, I kept moving forward in my life.
When I came back from abroad, these things started harassing me more. Then I resorted to Vipassana. Through this, I learned how to let sorrow dominate myself.
Alia has written and sung the song ‘You and I’ from ‘Bandish Bandits-2’.
You are doing very well in the music field. In such a situation, how did you get interested in acting?
I have been in touch with the casting agency since childhood. She was seven-eight years old when my brother’s fun was taken by the casting agency outside the Republic Mall. Later he used to audition. But nothing more than that, I just added two or three. I did not like the industry. I did not get good energy from the industry, so I decided not to act. I again went to the US to study. I loved acting. I used to enjoy doing this. I used to take acting class in US too.
When I came back after completing my studies, I got an audition call. I got a secondary role in a Netflix’s show ‘Eternally Confused and Egar for Love’. I had a two -day shoot. I got a chance to shoot with Tiger Baby Production. They keep their actor very well. I enjoyed working very much. I thought at that time that now I should also focus on acting with music.
Alia has made 12 songs so far. Most of these songs are in English.
You have a bad experience related to the industry, which would like to tell?
Yes, I have had bad experiences but I will not tell the name. I have many friends with whom the set is upside down. It is difficult to be a girl in any industry. Especially in the entertainment industry. Thankfully, I have not been with me at some big level yet but the industry is abusive. I have learned to face it.
My worst experience was that once I was shouted at the mike in front of everyone. I could not speak anything, cried a lot in the van. From that time I decided that I cannot change the industry, can change myself. If someone’s vibe is not looking good, then I go away myself. I can take criticism, not insulted.