The News Minute | August 28, 2014 | 05:00 pm IST
She fumbled on Karan Johar’s Koffee with Karan show when she was asked who the President of India was. Ever since then, Alia Bhatt has constantly been at the receiving at innumerable memes and jokes.
Over the last few days, Aliaa Bhatt has just proven she’s way cooler than most celebrities after acting in a video ‘Genius of the Year’taking a potshot at herself shot by All India Bakchod.
How did this video happen? Where did this idea originate from ? Tanmay Bhat, co-founder of India’s foremost comedy collective explained the entire story. Read and find out .
Right, so too many folks asking too many questions about how it happened. So just to clarify the story behind the Alia video.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
Once the whole meme thing started, we'd been toying with the idea of doing a video about it. A few ideas we're thrown around.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
Then one day we got the idea for a mental gym. Initially it was meant to be a tele shopping commercial-ish sketch. We instantly pitched.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
When we asked @aliaa08 if she'd be open to doing a sketch about the memes her exact words were "you guys MUST do it"
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
We wrote a draft. Around the same time we'd bumped into @shakunbatra a couple of times and he had liked some do our stuff previously.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
He agreed to direct the sketch immediately. After much back and forth, tele shopping was junked for a more story driven idea.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
We wrote a mocumentary style story driven format. Wrote a TON of cameos in it from movie stars coz you always write for best case scenario.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
More than half of those cameos never worked out. Some of them did. All individually pitched. And all agreed instantly.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
Next thing we know, we've shot the whole thing. And 20 days later it's ready. We we're a good 300% over budget from our usual budget.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
But it was cool coz we had some non fiction, cheaper sketch ideas we thought we'd adjust with. (Example: India Pakistan video)
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
I apologize for spamming the TL with this. Lots of people asking "Why you defending? It's cool even if you did take money".
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
That's one of the problems. We've actually tried actively in the past to work with celebrities in sketches where they just let loose.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
Honestly think it's a culture that needs to be cultivated from scratch.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
And when one movie star does do it and it gets labelled as a paid PR exercise, it kinda defeats the whole purpose for us.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
Honestly sincerely hope that YT creators get more access to movie folk and vice versa. It'll only lead to good things.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014
Aaaaaaaand scene.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 27, 2014