Alia Bhatt on invitation to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: Honoured and humbled

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has over 9000 members, and it has been pushing for diversity over the past few years. This year it has extended its membership to 819 people including Bollywood actors Hrithik Roshan and Alia Bhatt, casting directors Nandini Shrikent and Tess Joseph, costume designer Neeta Lulla, documentary filmmakers Nishtha Jain and Amit Madheshiya, visual effects supervisors Vishal Anand and Sandeep Kamal and composer Nainita Desai.

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💛 #wearetheacademy

A post shared by Alia Bhatt ☀️ (@aliaabhatt) on Jul 2, 2020 at 3:53am PDT

For Alia, receiving the invitation from The Academy gives a sense of satisfaction. In her thank you note, the Sadak 2 actor wrote, “There is also a deep satisfaction in seeing that the voice of Indian cinema is finding a very well deserved platform on the world stage. Every year, more actors, filmmakers and technicians from India are recognized by the Academy and Indian cinema continues to reach the hearts and homes of people all over the world.”

Alia Bhatt also shared what cinema means to her. For her, it is a medium that brings people of different class, race and geography together no matter what opinion one holds of a particular film.

The actor also took a jibe at those spreading hate on social media platforms as she mentioned social media might divide people, but movies will always bring them together.

She concluded, “In a world that can be unsure and fragmented, at a time when the very social media that is meant to connect people ends up dividing them, movies are the glue that binds us.”

On the work front, Alia Bhatt will be seen next in her father Mahesh Bhatt’s comeback film Sadak 2. Also starring Aditya Roy Kapur, Sanjay Dutt, Pooja Bhatt, Jisshu Sengupta and Gulshan Grover, the film will stream on Disney Plus Hotstar.