Is Alia and Ranbir's off-screen bonding a strategy to sell Brahmastra?

They are talented, good looking and most importantly, single. And the stories of their growing closeness has been sending the rumour mills into overdrive. Meet B-Town's new lovebirds - Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt.

Before Alia made a splash in Bollywood, she was quite smitten with Ranbir and shouted from the rooftops about her massive crush on him. Now that they are finally working together in Ayan Mukerji's Brahmastra, Ranbir and Alia have been painting the town red together. And whispers of their romance are only getting louder with each passing day.

If Alia has been vocal about her crush on Ranbir, the 35-year-old actor recently revealed that the feeling is mutual. Ranbir admitted to having a "boy crush" on Alia after getting to spend more time with her. This mutual admiration is sending their fans into a tizzy.

If their PDA was not enough, Ranbir and Alia's grand entry at Sonam Kapoor's wedding reception early this month only strengthened the rumours. It is no secret that Alia recently broke up with Sidharth Malhotra, and Ranbir has been single for quite some time. And their entry together only set tongues wagging.

So are Ranbir and Alia really dating or is it a strategy to sell Brahmastra?

Ayan Mukerji's fantasy drama was announced last year, but more than the film's unique concept, it's Ranbir and Alia's off-screen chemistry that has grabbed eyeballs. And in fact, their camaradiere is on the lips of almost every Bollywood fan.

It's almost a year for Brahmastra's release and it seems Ayan is already doing everything to create a buzz around the film. And Ranbir and Alia's brewing romance seems to be a part of the game. It is for the first time that Alia and Ranbir have been paired opposite each other, and their real-life PDA is only adding to the buzz around the film.

When Alia was asked recently asked about her crackling chemistry with Ranbir, she told Mumbai Mirror, "I'm happy that people are talking about my chemistry with Ranbir because we are doing a film together that comes out next year. (Laughs) And all these people who are talking about our chemistry better come and watch the film."

And this isn't the first time when link-up rumours have helped a film. Let's rewind a few months. Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani's rumoured affair became the talk of the town a few months before the release of Baaghi 2. Rumour mills went into a tizzy every now and then after a new picture of the couple surfaced online or the two were spotted together on a vacation or at a restaurant.

While Disha and Tiger maintained that they are just buddies, the speculation around their relationship status helped Baaghi 2 give the right kind of boost. In fact, Tiger, too, admitted that this buzz around their relationship was good for the film. "All this curiosity around whether our relationship is true or not is good for our film. People are eager to see our chemistry," he had said.

Baaghi 2 went onto cross the Rs 100-crore mark within few days of its release thus making it one of the biggest hits of 2018 so far. And Tiger and Disha's link-up did play a major role in pulling crowds to the theatre.

And it seems Alia and Ranbir are doing the same. Especially when the two remained tight-lipped about their past relationships, it's a little exaggeration to see them talk about each other so openly, and so often.

And this off-screen bonding between Alia and Ranbir is definitely making heads turn, and more than anything, making people wait eagerly for Brahmastra. While their sizzling chemistry can attract more people to theatres, but ultimately it's the content that will help Brahmastra sell. And not just Alia and Ranbir's good chemistry.

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