Why Does Alia Bhatt's Tattoo Keep Vanishing In The 'Alpha' Teaser?

Over the past two days, Indian cinephiles and critics have spent long hours on the Internet, and they have not been kind. The teaser for Alpha, YRF’s upcoming spy universe film starring Alia Bhatt, Sharvari, Bobby Deol and Anil Kapoor, has been dissected and pulled apart frame by frame. Coming on the heels of Dhurandhar‘s roaring success, a perceived bar was set for the legendary movie house behind Tiger Zinda Hai and Pathaan to match.

However, the 1-minute-and-55-second-long teaser, watched by 47 million folks on YouTube, has not lived up to the high expectations of the desi audience. From mocking Bobby Deol’s Haryanvi accent to criticising the “brushed” CGI look of the world the movie is set in, to ridiculing fight choreography – the viewers

had several bones to pick with Alpha as they continued trolling the upcoming movie across social media platforms.

If you thought that was it, nope. There was one key detail that the disgruntled army online couldn’t look past: why does Alia Bhatt’s character, playing a deadly assassin on a covert mission, have an ‘Alpha’ tattoo inked on her arm? More importantly, why does it keep appearing and disappearing in the teaser?

Magic Tattoo – Continuity Error?

Users on X claimed that the tattoo inked on Bhatt’s right arm appears to vanish and reappear during the fight action set pieces. Upon a second or third rewatch of the teaser, the permanent tattoo does seem to be missing from a few frames, including this one:

(YRF / YouTube)

Lamenting the filmmaker’s “weak detailing,” X user @Shreyansh3951 wrote: “The tattoo continuity error is wild considering they had an entire VFX team, but I guess when you’re busy with explosions you forget about the small stuff that actually builds character depth.”

“If I was directing this movie I would have made whole arm sleeve tattoo then I will hide the “special tattoo” and then it would have made sense and some tatoos on her others parts too (sic),” wrote @RohandasDG.

Jaskirat burns every trace of his identity before going to Pak and Aditya dhar puts the BGM "Dil toota hai mera, main ishq jala kar aaya hoon." That was peak detailing that many people didn't even notice.

Meanwhile, Alia's secret Alpha tattoo suddenly appears and then disappears… pic.twitter.com/SNuFHwvByX

— ` (@worshipVK) June 12, 2026

Also Read: How Alia Bhatt’s ‘Alpha’ Teaser Accidentally Made ‘Dhurandhar’ Trend Again On X

Why Is The Alpha Tattoo An Issue?

In the teaser, a young girl playing Bhatt’s younger self is inducted into a squad, trained to become an assassin. She turns to her mentor, played by Bobby Deol, and asks him about the tattoo being inked on her arm. Deol reveals the existence of a secret program, ‘Alpha’. It was recruiting a new generation of soldiers to carry out covert operations. A palatable premise, but the Internet had questions.

(YRF / YouTube)

Yes, the tattoo bothered the people. If you are a covert assassin whose entire existence depends on nobody knowing who you are, the last thing you would want is to carry your organisation’s logo on your arm.

Red Herring?

Red Herring [noun]: a fact, idea, or subject that takes people’s attention away from the central point being considered.

Have the millions of viewers already jumped the gun just from the teaser? Or the filmmakers of the spy universe have done a boo-boo? We may only know in the days to come. But it’s worth repeating that the meticulous and painful process that Ranveer Singh’s Jaskirat Singh Rangi undergoes to shed one identity and assume Hamza Ali Mazari’s is something that cinema watchers paid over Rs 3100 crores to witness in the Dhurandhar franchise.

Also Read: Red Card Message On US TV During FIFA World Cup 2026 That Left Football Fans Cringing

The Dhurandhar Debate

Jaskirat Singh Rangi, an Indian death-row criminal, is trained and sent to Pakistan as a spy, Hamza Ali Mazari, to breach and dismantle the nation’s terror syndicate. He plays the key role in ‘Mission Dhurandhar,’ described as India’s first espionage operation of its kind. His traumatic past and resentment only make him a lethal weapon who is driven as much by vengeance as by patriotism. Jaskirat relinquishes his identity to become a person who shall never be identified.

Hoards of social media users have planned to skip movies being churned out by Bollywood altogether until they meet a Dhurandhar match.