Pooja Bhatt is the eldest child of a blended family, where her father Mahesh Bhatt has two daughters — Shaheen Bhatt and Alia Bhatt — from his second marriage with Soni Razdan, after raising two kids — Pooja and Rahul Bhatt — from his first marriage with Kiran Bhatt. She’s maintained that she respects her father for walking out of his marriage with her mother when he felt that the relationship had run its course.
“Would I rather have a father who acknowledges he’s human, that there’s been a shift in his affection, who moves out of the house to stand by the woman he’s met? Or would I prefer a father who stays under the same roof as my mother for society’s sake, has 200 affairs outside, but there’s an air of normalcy and conspiracy of silence maintained by everybody?,” asked Pooja in a recent interview.
“Because they are mard, so they can do it. That never happened at my home. They both thought the relationship was over,” Pooja told Vickey Lalwani, recalling the time when her father fell for late actor Parveen Babi in the late 1970s. But after “the tragedy played out with Parveen”, referring to her long battle with mental health, Mahesh and Kiran gave their marriage a shot again, but it didn’t work.
Mahesh Bhatt had an affair with Parveen Babi in the late 1970s.(Pics: Express Archive)
Told Soni to not feel ‘guilty’
Pooja recalled shooting for a film Love Affair, based on the infamous 1959 Nanavati murder case, which was supposed to be directed by her stepmother Soni Razdan. Though the film never saw light of the day, Pooja recalled having a “heart-to-heart” conversation with Soni under the Ooty stars where the latter confessed to her she feels “guilty” for breaking her parents’ marriage.
“So, I told her from my heart, ‘Soni, you couldn’t have broken up a relationship that was together. There’s no space for anybody in a relationship that’s solid. Something was lacking, so somebody else could come and find that space,’” recalled Pooja. “When I look at my parents today, the nature of love has changed. But they’re one unit. When people ask me, ‘What about love?’, so I say if love can be like that, when two people can be there for each other morally through thick and thin… Even if the world is on one side, and you’re wrong but you can still stand by my side nonetheless,” she added.
My father ‘never parted ways’ with my mother
Pooja reiterated her parents’ stance that there are “no villains” in their love story. “She forgave him years ago otherwise they wouldn’t have reached where they are. Who’s the villain? Is Soni the villain? Is Parveen Babi the villain? Is Mahesh Bhatt the villain? Is Kiran the villain, or Lorraine Bright rather?,” said Pooja, referring to Kiran’s maiden name, before adding, “Is life the villain? Or circumstances? Is being wretchedly human the villain?”
Pooja recounted that Soni would frequent her parents’ house even before her relationship with Mahesh Bhatt began because they were working on his 1984 seminal family drama Saaransh. “When the relationship bloomed, my father decided to give it a name, and not keep it hidden. That’s when one night, he woke me up and told me he’s involved with Soni and he’d be setting up a new home with her, and that shouldn’t make me feel abandoned as a child because he’d never abandon me,” added Pooja.
Story continues below this ad
Soni Razdan and Mahesh Bhatt tied the knot in 1986.
Even as Mahesh tied the knot with Soni in 1986, he converted to Islam so that he doesn’t have to divorce his first wife. When asked if Mahesh Bhatt changed his religion to marry Soni, Pooja said, “He’d never part ways with my mother. I know one thing about my father that once he holds your hands, whoever you are, he doesn’t let go. That’s applicable to the women in his life, people he’s worked with, and people whom he’s groomed and launched. He’s there. He’s reliable.”
But she does acknowledge that her father’s remarriage wasn’t easy on her mother. “Relationships don’t end well. I did see my mother’s pain that it’s happening again,” admitted Pooja. But she added that Kiran, being a “dignified woman”, never drag her or Rahul into her separation with their father. “They’ve always maintained a decorum and grace with each other. They never pitted the children against each other. In fact, there have been times I’ve fought my mother and my father has taken her side. He’s told me, ‘Listen, please don’t ever think where my priorities lie’ (laughs). So, they’ve always been very solid when it came to me. My father moved out, but that’s truly a matter of geography,” added Pooja.
Alia, Shaheen like extended family
Pooja revealed that she has a “far closer friendship” with Soni today than what she had when she was in her teens or when she was working as a lead actor in Hindi cinema back in the 1980s and the 1990s. She also considers Shaheen and Alia as her “extended family”. “When Shaheen was born, the first person my father called was my mother. And I’ll never forget the moment when my mother came to me and said, ‘Hey, you have a sister now.’ So, it just naturally became what’s become now,” said Pooja.
Also Read — Ashutosh Gowariker is glad he doesn’t have to worry about his hairstyle now: ‘Liberating’
Story continues below this ad
She added that both Shaheen and Alia have “grown up in front of me”. “We might not have physically spent a lot of time with each other, especially now that Alia is working. We all have our own lives. We meet on special days, like Christmas and birthdays. My brother lives next door, but we don’t get into each other’s space or each other’s hair. But we’re there for each other when we need each other to be,” added Pooja.
