Alia Bhatt made her much-awaited Hollywood debut last week with Netflix and Skydance’s Heart of Stone, directed by Tom Harper and co-starring Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan.
Whilst Alia attended Netflix’s Global Fan Event, Tudum, in Brazil in June to launch the official trailer of Heart of Stone with Gal and Jamie, she wasn’t seen on a global press tour, red carpet premieres or on late night American talk shows thereafter, something her fans expected.
The film also marks her first English-language role as Keya Dhawan, a mysterious hacker who’s out to steal the “Heart,” the Charter’s state-of-the-art artificial intelligence. “If you own the heart, you own the world. And clearly she’s here to disrupt a couple of things,” Bhatt told Tudum in June.
At one point in July, Alia stopped promoting the film altogether, even on her social media, where she has a powerful following, with 79M followers on Instagram alone.
The reason behind the silence on anything related Heart of Stone by the actress is the currently ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. The strike for actors working in Hollywood, which started from 14th July 2023, has strict rules for any members of the union relating to publicity of motion pictures and television shows.
Along with stepping away from all film and television productions worldwide, actors are also not be permitted to take part in promotional work of any kind, including press junkets, film premieres, and any fan events.
Even though Alia is not a SAG-AFTRA member, she confirmed on her Instagram Q&A session this week, that she chose to stand in solidarity with union members and kept away from promoting the film once the strike commenced.
A few promotional interviews were conducted with Alia for the film, albeit they were all recorded pre-strike.
