Pooja Bhatt

Biography:

Pooja Bhatt is an Indian film director, actress, voice actor, and filmmaker who was born on February 24, 1972. She was up in the Bhatt household and is the daughter of Indian director Mahesh Bhatt. In the 1989 television film Daddy, directed by Mahesh Bhatt, Bhatt portrayed her first major role.

She took home the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for the movie. The romantic comedy Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (1991), which also happened to be her highest grossing picture, marked her debut. She competed in Bigg Boss OTT 2, finishing as the fourth runner-up.

On February 24, 1972, Pooja Bhatt was born into the family of Mahesh Bhatt and Kiran Bhatt (née Loraine Bright). Bhatt has Gujarati ancestry on her father’s side and English, Scottish, Armenian, and Burmese lineage on her mother’s side.

She is Soni Razdan’s stepdaughter. She has two half-sisters, Shaheen and Alia Bhatt, and a brother, Rahul Bhatt. Hitarth Bhat and Emraan Hashmi are her cousins. In 2003, Bhatt wed restaurateur Manish Makhija; the two separated in 2014.

At the age of 17, Bhatt made her screen debut in the 1989 TV movie Daddy, which was directed by her father, Mahesh Bhatt. She played a soul-searching young girl opposite actor Anupam Kher in the movie, who was estranged from her alcoholic father. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for her role in the movie.

The romantic comedy Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (1991), which starred Aamir Khan and was a remake of the Oscar-winning Hollywood classic It Happened One Night (1934), was her biggest solo hit and her big screen debut. Following the movie’s success, Bhatt starred in more daring projects, including Stardust.

Her most well-known films from the 1990s were Sadak (1991) with Sanjay Dutt opposite, Junoon, Jaanam, and Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayee opposite Rahul Roy, Sir (1993) and Guneghar (1995) with Atul Agnihotri, Tadipaar (1993) and Naaraaz (1994) with Mithun Chakraborty

Hum Dono (1995) with Rishi Kapoor, Angrakshak (1995) with Sunny Deol opposite, Chaahat (1996) with Shah Rukh Khan, Tamanna (1997) with Rishi Kapoor, Border (1997), and Zakhm (1998) with Ajay Devgan, which was awarded the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration.

Mahesh Bhatt’s mother Shirin Mohammad Ali was the inspiration for the movie Zakhm, which starred Pooja Bhatt, her daughter, as her. Her final motion picture role was in the 2001 English-language movie Everybody Says I’m Fine!.

She concentrated on producing and directing from 2003 to 2012. In 2004, she made her feature film directing debut with Paap, which starred Udita Goswami and John Abraham. She went on to direct four additional films after that: Jism 2 (2012), Holiday (2006), Dhokha (2007), and Kajraare (2010).

A follow-up to the popular 1991 movie, Sadak 2, marked Bhatt’s acting comeback in 2020. With this movie, her father made his directing comeback after a 20-year hiatus, and she costarred with her half-sister Alia Bhatt. It was made available for streaming on Disney+ Hotstar on August 28, 2020.

Bhatt debuted on the web in 2021 with the Netflix series Bombay Begums. Rahul Bose, Aadhya Anand, Shahana Goswami, Plabita Borthakur, and Amruta Subhash were also featured.

She made an appearance in the movie Chup: Revenge of the Artist in 2022.  In 2023, she competed in the popular reality show Bigg Boss OTT 2, where she emerged as the 4th runner up of the season.