Acting, direction, alcoholism, kiss with Mahesh Bhatt, Bigg Boss OTT: The dizzying journey of Pooja Bhatt

Pooja Bhatt is just as explosive as her father and filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt.

The actor

The aura on celluloid was just the opposite when she started with her father’s aching take on fatherhood and alcoholism in the form of Daddy, with Anupam Kher. There was something naughty and childlike both in her demeanor, and Mahesh Bhatt used her weakness as her strength and gave her Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin in 1991. It continued with films like Junoon, Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayee, Pehla Nasha, Hum Dono, and Zakhm.

The filmmaker

Mahesh Bhatt has spoken multiple times in his interviews about switching from sorrows to sex, emotions to erotica, as it guarantees gargantuan box-office returns. Pooja produced the erotic thriller Jism in 2003, where both Bipasha Basu and John Abraham were unapologetic about quenching their sexual thirst and gratify the audiences’ appetites. She directed the sequel nine years later, about a wounded adult film star who’s being emotionally haunted by a former flame that’s gone rogue.

The kiss of death

Both father and daughter were mauled and hounded, and still are, for the kids they shared for a photoshoot. Mahesh Bhatt made no bones about stating that he would marry Pooja if she wasn’t his daughter. It all blew up and threatened to smash their repute into smithereens. Thank god the man knew how to make movies!

The battle of alcoholism

In an interview with Filmfare, Pooja poured her heart out and said, “When I decided to quit drinking, I decided to be open about it. I began my career with a film like Daddy, which was about a young girl getting her father who’s an alcoholic to stop drinking. And there I was dealing with the same problem. I reached out to people to let them know that it’s something that could happen to anyone. Women especially need to be a bit more open about that. And I was overwhelmed by the response that I got from random strangers.”

The Bigg Boss OTT stint

Inside the house, the actor and filmmaker is turning out to be a rather unusual contestant. She spoke about her divorce with Manish Makhija. She said, “ My husband was not an awful person. But then I thought I had lost myself and it was not for anyone else or life’s betterment. I wanted myself back.”

Further opening up on the issue, she said people ask if you are doing fine and prefer affirmative responses. However, only to hide behind alcohol later. She added, “Then I thought I wanted to set myself free and find myself but I drilled myself more into a bad zone. So that phase of my life was the lowest phase of my life.”

The baffling acts

Among the major rules is that they are locked inside the BB house without cell phones and speak off the cuff and not with scripts in hand. However, Pooja Bhatt was captured using a mobile phone and reading prepared notes in a video.

The viral clip was shared on the microblogging site X (earlier Twitter) by user Bigg Boss Tak who posts regularly about the show’s latest updates. The post was captioned: “Ye Pooja ji kya kar rahi hai?” Zoom kar zoom kar. (What is Pooja Bhatt doing? Zoom in.)”

What next for Pooja Bhatt, inside the house and outside in the world?