Born on March 15, 1993, to filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress mother Soni Razdan, a lil girl with chubby cheeks and benevolent smile had only one dream - to be in films. The sheer joy of being in a spotlight gave her an adrenaline rush. Debuting in 1999 as a child artiste in Sangharsh, she stepped into mainstream films six years back with mentor Karan Johar's SOTY, and since then there has been no looking back.

Exalted, exuberant and immensely talented Alia turns 25 today and owns the credit of being the most popular superstar today. On her birthday, let's have a dekko at 5 reasons where our birthday girl couldn't help but make news and how!

Dazzling Debut

She hit the big screen in 2012 with Karan Johar's Student of the Year, alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan, and owned it! Portraying the role of Shanaya Singhania, a sophisticated teenage girl who is in a relationship with Dhawan's character but is attracted to the character played by Malhotra, she won hearts in a jiffy. Trade experts raved, “Extremely photogenic, Alia makes a super-confident debut,” while critics drew attention to her simple yet powerful performance.

Recommended Read: Alia to celebrate her birthday on the sets of ‘Brahmastra’

Gaffes Galore!

She became the butt of jokes on ‘Koffee with Karan’ with her apparent lack of general knowledge. When asked who the President of India was, Alia promptly replied ‘Prithviraj Chavan’! The poor dear girl had mixed up the Chief Minister of Maharashtra with the President of India! The incident spawned a million memes. So much so that when Shah Rukh was asked what he would do if he woke up as Alia Bhatt one morning, he joked, “I would read newspapers in the morning.”

Touche!

When life gives you rude jokes… you make one on yourself! Even as the world and its aunt chuckled over her lack of GQ, clever Alia Bhatt went and shot a video to give it back to all the critics. The 10-minute long documentary, called ‘Genius of the Year’, had Alia Bhatt acting in it – reacting and sharing how she felt about the ‘aftermath’ of her ‘Koffee With Karan’ debacle. Directed by Shakun Batra, the video also had spoofs of her movie songs. She had claimed, “I don’t get upset at it, I laugh at it. I am the first person to laugh at myself. I always say that I rather be stupid than pretend to be intelligent.”

Tricky Love

Even five years after their film SOTY hit screens, the triangular love story continued to play out in real life. If Alia was in a serious relationship with Sidharth Malhotra, she continued to be linked to Varun Dhawan! There have been suggestions galore of Alia's then lover, Sidharth being mighty upset with her for showering all her attention on Varun. Even Varun’s long-time girlfriend Natasha was reportedly insecure of Varun's closeness to Alia. Varun supposedly has been choosing to maintain a safe distance from his SOTY co-star to focus on his work. However, given they are a hit pair at the box office, the two cannot exactly escape each other!

Film Choices

Alia continues to amaze us with her surprisingly mature choice of films and her astounding range as an actor. From the kidnapped girl who develops Stockholm Syndrome in Highway, to the recovering drug addict in Udta Punjab, to the career-oriented girl of Badrinath ki Dulhania, she continues to make waves with her performances. Why, she even refused a film opposite Baahubali’s Prabhas because she would be left looking like arm candy!