Pooja Bhatt

Pooja Bhatt was born on 24 February 1972^[2] to Mahesh Bhatt and Kiran Bhatt (born Loraine Bright).^[3] On her father's side, Bhatt is of Gujarati descent and on her mother's side, she is of English, Scottish, Armenian, and Burmese ancestry.^[3][4][5][6] She is the step-daughter of Soni Razdan. She has a brother, Rahul Bhatt and half-sisters Shaheen Bhatt and Alia Bhatt.^[4] Her cousins are Hitarth Bhat and Emraan Hashmi.^[7]

Personal life

Bhatt married restaurateur Manish Makhija in 2003, they divorced in 2014.^[8][9]

Bhatt made her acting debut at age 17, in 1989 with Daddy, a TV film directed by her father Mahesh Bhatt. In the film, she portrayed a soul-searching teenage girl in an estranged relationship with her alcoholic father, played by actor Anupam Kher. Her performance in the film earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.

Her biggest solo hit and her big screen debut came with the romantic comedy Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (1991) opposite Aamir Khan,^[4] which was a remake of the Oscar-winning Hollywood classic It Happened One Night (1934). The film proved to be a breakthrough for Bhatt, post which she also appeared in many bold shoots like Stardust.^[10]

Her most well-known films in the 1990s included Sadak^[4] opposite Sanjay Dutt (1991), The film is one of the highest-grossing movies of the year 1991.^[11] The film was inspired by the 1976 American film Taxi Driver.^[12] Then she was cast in Junoon, Jaanam, and Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayee opposite Rahul Roy, her chemistry with Roy was widely appreciated by Critics. After starring in many hit movies, she did many films including, Sir (1993) and Guneghar (1995) opposite Atul Agnihotri, Tadipaar (1993) and Naaraaz (1994) opposite Mithun Chakraborty, Hum Dono opposite Rishi Kapoor, Angrakshak opposite Sunny Deol (1995). Then in (1996) Bhatt, stars in Chaahat opposite Shah Rukh Khan, which was a critical and commercial successful.

She next starred as an abandoned girl in the thriller film Tamanna, which marked her first production venture under her Pooja Bhatt Productions. It also won the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues. Bhatt began 1997 with a role in Jyoti Prakash Dutta’s ensemble drama Border, the film was released worldwide on 13 June 1997 with positive reviews from critics and garnered critical acclaim for its story, execution, scale, showing off the battle, direction, screenplay, performances and soundtrack.^[13] It opened to strong box office results, had a final domestic net total of ₹394 million (US$4.7 million) and was declared an all-time blockbuster by Box Office India. It also became the highest-grossing Hindi film of 1997 in India, but if according to worldwide, it was the second highest-grossing film of the year behind Dil To Pagal Hai. Border grossed a worldwide total of ₹655.7 million and it was the fourth biggest blockbuster film of the 90s decade.^[14]

Bhatt gained further success in (1998) with the film Zakhm, opposite Ajay Devgan, which won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration. Zakhm was based on the life of Mahesh Bhatt's mother Shirin Mohammad Ali, while she essayed her character in this film.^[15][16][17] The performance of Bhatt was well received, for which she received a Filmfare Award for Best Actress (Critics) nomination. Bhatt was also part of a film Angaaray, opposite Akshay Kumar and Nagarjuna. The movie was inspired by the American film State of Grace. The movie turned out to be a commercially successful. All these achievements established Bhatt as one of the most successful actresses of the year, according to Box Office India.

In 2001 Bhatt stars in an English-language drama film Everybody Says I'm Fine!, which was written and directed by Rahul Bose. The film was also premiered on 12 September at the Toronto International Film Festival. Her last film appearance was in the Romantic film Sanam Teri Kasam in 2009, opposite Saif Ali Khan and Atul Agnihotri.

From 2003 to 2012, she focused on producing and directing. She made her directorial debut with Paap in 2004, starring John Abraham and Udita Goswami. Since then, she has made four more directorial ventures: Holiday (2006), Dhokha (2007), Kajraare (2010) and Jism 2 (2012).^[4]

In 2020, Bhatt returned to acting with Sadak 2, a sequel to the hit 1991 film. Her father returned to directing with this film after 20 years, while her half-sister Alia Bhatt also co-starred alongside her.^[18] It was released on 28 August 2020 on the streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar.^[19]

In 2021, Bhatt made her web series debut in the Netflix series Bombay Begums. It also featured Amruta Subhash, Shahana Goswami, Plabita Borthakur, Aadhya Anand and Rahul Bose.^[20]

In 2022, she appeared in the film Chup: Revenge of the Artist.

In 2023, she participated in the popular reality show Bigg Boss OTT 2, where she emerged as the 4th runner up of the season.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pooja Bhatt.

• Pooja Bhatt at Bollywood Hungama
• Pooja Bhatt at IMDb
• Pooja Bhatt on X