As Imtiaz Ali was dealing with a mature subject he had originally planned to cast older women (above 30–35 years) someone like Aishwarya Rai for the lead role of Veera in Highway.
However, he changed his mind after meeting Alia Bhatt.
Imtiaz met Alia at the screening of Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana. After meeting Alia at the screening, he felt a strong soul-to-soul character connection and changed his vision to feature a younger protagonist.
He realised that Alia’s inner spirit inherently mirrored Veera’s essence. She possessed a rare emotional depth and high emotional quotient.
Alia was given the script. She was scared to take the intense role as she was there in almost every scene. Finally, she was convinced by her father Mahesh Bhatt to accept the challenge.
Alia was indeed a very unexpected actor for Highway. Even the unit was wondering how she would pull off the character but Alia stunned everyone with her performance in the film.
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