Vikram Bhatt defends Alia Bhatt amid Alpha backlash: ‘1000 negative comments for Rs 1 lakh’

2 min readBengaluruUpdated: Jun 18, 2026 12:46 PM IST

Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt has come out in support of Alia Bhatt following the mixed reactions to the Alpha teaser.

Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt has spoken in defence of Alia Bhatt amid the online discourse surrounding the teaser of Alpha, the first female-led film in the YRF Spy Universe. Reacting to the criticism and trolling directed at the actor, Vikram questioned why Alia was being singled out despite her willingness to step outside her comfort zone.

“Why is Alia Bhatt getting trolled? Poor thing. She’s attempting something different and should be appreciated for it,” he said in an interview with News18.

Drawing from his own experience, Vikram Bhatt claimed that the trailer of his recent film Haunted 3D: Echoes Of The Past was also targeted by what he described as a paid trolling campaign. Recalling the incident, the filmmaker said, “We were getting a lot of bad comments on the YouTube channel of Anand Pandit Motion Pictures but not on Saregama’s YouTube channel or Instagram. Then we found out that it was a paid campaign and the people saying bad things were bots. So, we had to work that out. We can make out organic comments from inorganic ones.”

Expanding on the issue of online negativity, Vikram Bhatt urged audiences to be cautious about taking every social media comment at face value. “We need to tell audiences that every bad comment they read could be generated by a bot, by a computer, by a nobody. It takes Rs 1 lakh for thousand comments. I don’t know who’s paying this money. But I’m sure everyone has enemies. You don’t know which faction is doing it. But obviously, someone doesn’t wish you well,” he said.

Directed by Shiv Rawail and backed by Yash Raj Films, Alpha is one of the most anticipated entries in the spy universe and marks Alia Bhatt’s first full-fledged action-led franchise film.