Alia Bhatt turns Baddie in ‘Heart of Stone’

Alia Bhatt channels her dark side as she plays a villain in her Hollywood debut Heart of Stone.

Alia, Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan unveiled the film’s first trailer at Netflix’s Tudum fan festival in Brazil.

The trailer features Rachel Stone’s (Gal Gadot) adrenaline-junkie habits being explained as her boss (Sophie Okonedo) warns her:

“You know what you signed up for.

“No friends, no relationships… What we do is too important.

“When governments fail, the only thing left is the Charter.”

Rachel and Parker (Jamie Dornan) are among the Charter’s most highly-trained agents, who have no political leanings or national allegiances and are described as “working together to keep peace in a turbulent world”.

But things take a turn when hacker Keya Dhawan (Alia Bhatt) steals the agency’s ‘heart’, which is a technological core that “gives the Charter its power”.

Heart of Stone then sets off on a globe-trotting adventure, including London, Italy and Portugal.

Keya challenges Rachel: “Now you answer to me.”

Rachel issues her own warning to Keya and says:

“Heart or no heart, I’m coming for you.”

Directed by Tom Harper, Heart of Stone features major action sequences including a motorcycle chase through the Alps and cars speeding through the streets of Lisbon.

Rachel is also seen flying through the air twice – first, paragliding off a snowy embankment and later, skydiving.

One Charter agent tells Rachel: “Chance of success just plummeted.”

As she lands on her target, Rachel shoots back: “Only because you have no imagination.”

After Alia shared the trailer on her Instagram, fellow Desi stars praised her Hollywood debut.

Lilly Singh posted: “Let’s go sis.”

Mouni Roy, who played a villain opposite Alia in Brahmastra, said:

“This is amaaaazing. Congratulations A.”

However, some fans were disappointed that Alia had a short screen time in the trailer.

Responding to those fans, Alia said:

“That’s bound to happen.”

“But I’m also not too worried about that because I feel at the end of the day you have to get a sense of what the story is about and how the story leads you to the final film. That’s all that matters.”

In addition to bringing her action skills to the table, Gal Gadot also produced the film with her husband Jason Varsano.

Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger are also billed as producers, along with Mockingbird’s Bonnie Curtis and Julie Lynn. Patty Whitcher, Harper and Rucka serve as executive producers.

Heart of Stone releases on Netflix on August 11, 2023, the same day as Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal.

Watch the Heart of Stone Trailer