Being alive for 74 years is a big achievement for someone who was born at a time when his countrymen died at barely 35 years of age. Obviously the man should be praised for crossing every hurdle coming his way. At the same time it also means that there is a dark side in his life as well. Mahesh Bhatt is no different.
Absent father impacted his childhood
Bhatt was born on this day in 1948. Interestingly, his birthday coincides with that of the infamous English newspaper, THE HINDU. But coincidences do not end here. Both newspaper and Bhatt have similar ideological leanings as well, which of course we do not need to elaborate here.
Coming back to Bhatt, he was born to a Brahmin father and Muslim mother. Like most children born during his time, Mahesh’s childhood was also tough. Father’s strictness was absent from his childhood as he was raised only by his mother. The lack of a disciplining environment meant that he was early into earning quick money instead of focussing on his studies, a necessary skill to earn stable income at the time.
Young director making roads into industry of olds
Bhatt used to do summer jobs, which included making product advertisements as well. Soon he got a break as the assistant director to Raj Khosla, top director, producer, and screenwriter of his time. His first movie Manzilein Aur Bhi Hain, as a director came at a tender age of 26. 6 years later, his movie Lahu Ke Do Rang, starring Shabana Azmi and Vinod Khanna bagged two filmfare awards. Later on, his movies such as Arth, Janam, Saransh, lover’s favourite Ashiqi, Dil Hai ke manta nahi, Sathi, Sir, and many others gave him both box office collections as well as critical acclaim in the 80s and 90s.
While the man was making his name in the industry, controversies followed him as well. Most of the controversies were in fact related to his personal life. Even to this date, Mahesh Bhatt is known for glamorous lifestyle, parties and dating upcoming actresses. His first reported finance is said to be Lorraine Bright. The affair turned into a marriage as well and Bhatt married Lorraine in 1970. Lorraine later changed her name to Kiran Bhatt. Aashiqui movie is said to be Bhatt’s tribute to this affair.
Affair with Parveen Babi
But other than making a movie on his affair, Mahesh did not actually contribute to the happiness of Kiran Bhatt. While staying in marital bond with the girl he once loved, Mahesh fell in love with Parveen Babi. Bhatt dated Parveen from 1977-1980 while being married to Lorraine aka Kiran Bhatt. During this period, Parveen’s mental health issues started coming out. It is alleged that Bhatt only let them flare up. Mahesh said that Parveen was out of touch with reality and often had anxiety issues. According to him, Parveen had a mental disease called paranoid schizophrenia.
Mind you, schizophrenia is a disease which mainly affects either those who are too old or those young people who are too much in touch with their intellect. Parveen was young but she was not known for these qualities. When things went south, he left Parveen. She was left with to live a lonely life, as the news of her mental breakdown made her unfit for movies. When she died alone in her apartment in 2005, Mahesh was the only one who came forward to claim her dead body. As usual Mahesh Bhatt is believed to have capitalised on her tragedy as well by making a movie named Woh Lamhe in 2006.
Divorced Kiran and married Soni
Parveen was hardly the only source of pain in Kiran Bhatt’s marriage. Instead of focusing more towards Kiran, he looked the other way towards Soni Razdan. It was for marrying Soni did he divorce Kiran. With Soni, he has two daughters named Alia and Shaheen Bhatt.
If the moralists of the bunch were willing to forgive him for what he did with Kiran, they would change their mind when they get to know what happened with her daughter Pooja Bhatt. Mahesh has an unholy infatuation with Pooja Bhatt as well, the girl born out of wedlock between Mahesh and his first wife. To add insult to the injury of his fans, the director had no qualms in laying it out to the public as well.
Children with Kiran Bhat were also spoiled
A picture of Mahesh Bhatt kissing his daughter passionately on the lips had appeared in the Filmfare magazine in the ’80s. “If Pooja wasn’t my daughter, I’d have loved to marry her,” Mahesh Bhatt had told the Filmfare magazine. His actions brought widespread criticism as everyone from the media to the film industry frowned upon Mahesh’s act of indecency and an even lewd statement. Imagine the film industry criticising one of theirs. The act has to be ghastly in nature.
Rahul Bhatt, the other child from Mahesh’s marriage also turned out to be a disaster. Rahul was the friend of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) spy David Coleman Headley aka Dawood Gilani. Although he was let go of by the police, his connection with Headley brought a lot of negative spotlights on both the father-son duo. Headley later told a court in Chicago that he liked Bhatt and had hoped to recruit him as an agent for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Mahesh Bhatt-an Islamist
Possibly the reason behind Rahul’s closeness with terrorists was Bhatt’s proclivity towards radical Islamism. Believe it or not, but Mahesh Bhatt was a fan of Osama Bin Laden.
In one of his viral videos on the Internet, Bhatt is openly defending Osama Bin Laden. And, if that was not enough, he called for the hanging of George Bush, the American President at the time of 9/11. Totally diverting people’s attention from root cause of terrorism, he had also said that terrorism will continue until the ‘injustice’ isn’t stopped. One would wonder what kind of injustice a rich kid like Osama Bin Laden had faced to become such a monster.
This man brazenly and openly supports Izlamic terror attacks on India. Are you STILL going to watch his movie? @MaheshNBhatt is a creep in more ways than one. pic.twitter.com/TGwZwqhFWX
— Shefali Vaidya. 🇮🇳 (@ShefVaidya) July 5, 2020
Fan of Zakir Naik
No one knows exactly when and how Mahesh Bhatt got radicalised. Maybe his conversion to Islam for the purpose of marrying Soni Razdan has something to do with it. But one thing we know for certain is that he is an avid follower of Islamic preacher Zakir Naik. Even in public he has sung praises for Zakir.
Appreciating Zakir and asking Indians to be grateful to Zakir, Mahesh Bhatt had said, “At the onset, let me salute Dr. Zakir Naik for daring to lock horns with the mighty British Empire… I salute his audacity which comes from his Imaan… If he had any grey spot in his heart, he wouldn’t have risked locking horns with these bullies… The world is becoming the most entertained and the least informed one… We, as Indians, owe it to our brother (Zakir Naik) who is national pride, (and) a prized treasure.”
Bhatt had refused to call him a warmonger and had criticised who called Zakir as such. He even used to appear on Peace TV, a laughable name given to Zakir’s personal channel. Bhatt was so smitten by Zaakir that he believed his life should be showcased to millions of Indians in a movie. Bhatt wanted to make a movie about him. Maybe he still wants to do it and is waiting for the change of guards at the top of India’s power hierarchy.
Mahesh Bhatt has a young mind
Amidst all this, Bhatt kept producing more and more movies. Even after he crossed 50, his thought process was still in more sync with teenage people, or should I say he knows where titillating bones of youth lie. Movies like Kasoor, Raaz, Jism, Saaya, Paap, Footpath, Rog, Kalyug, Gangster, Murder 2, Jannat 2, Ashiqui 2, Sadak 2 are prime examples of his proclivity towards youthful though process.
Also Read: Mahesh Bhatt – a decent filmmaker with a horrible legacy
Rhea, Jiah and Sushant Singh Rajput
Another example is how much he interferes with and hobnobs with young actors and actresses. The man has been connected with young actresses like Rhea Chakraborty and Jiah Khan as well. Jiah Khan in fact died under similar circumstances as Parveen Babi.
Bhatt is also said to have a hand in pushing Sushant Singh Rajput to the edge. There have been claims that a few days before Sushant’s death, Rhea had deleted all her personal photos with Sushant from her Instagram page. No one knows till date whether it was because of the breakup or due to Bhatt’s intervention.
Mahesh Bhatt has more vices than virtues. In the ultimate analysis, he is just a hedonistic individual passing on the evilness to more and more people.
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