Exclusive | Alizeh Agnihotri Reveals How Alia Bhatt's Highway Inspired Her to Become an Actor

Salman Khan’s niece Alizeh Agnihotri made her acting debut with National Award-winning director Soumendra Padhi’s film Farrey. The film opened in cinemas last Friday and has received a positive response from the critics as well as the audiences. While she hails from a film family, Alizeh in an exclusive conversation with News18 said that one of her inspirations to become an actor was when he watched Imtiaz Ali’s Highway.

“I was on a flight returning home from college when I watched Highway. It inspired me to try my hand at acting as I realised there is a space for women to do very strong, empowered roles, a different kind of cinema is being brought into this country with this new generation of directors and actors,” she said.

Alizeh started workshops and over time, through practice and preparation she honed her craft. “I made a reel of all my auditions and started showing it around to people. I started getting good feedback. Farrey was offered to me in an organic manner. It fascinated me because, I thought, it was a different way to make a debut. Somendra (Padhi) sir has won a National Award. He has got a lot of credibility and that was the biggest thing about this film. It was a great learning experience because it felt like I was getting trained at a school of acting,” she added.

The film, which also features Prasanna Bisht, Zeyn Shaw, and Sahil Mehta in the lead, is produced by Alizeh’s parents Atul and Alvira Agnihotri. Given her parents’ backing, Alizeh said she was aware people were going to say that it was her big launch. “For me, I am just a small part of this film with a lot of good actors. I am glad that I chose Farrey as my debut film. In fact, By the way, SKF (Salman Khan Films) is only the presenter of the movie. We had already made the film and SKF came on board to present it for us. During the shoot, it was never mentioned that it is an SKF film,” she explained.

Alizeh says her family has given her a lot of freedom to make her own choices. “Right from my grandfather (Salim Khan) to my uncles (Salman, Arbaaz, Sohail Khan), everyone in the family has made it on their own and found their niche and I know they would want the same for me. We are very close and we all get along very well,” she said.