There have been many stars who are rumoured to be victims of alcohol and nicotine however very few of them have come out to reveal their experience and Pooja Bhatt has been one of them. Pooja Bhatt is the daughter of Mahesh Bhatt with his first wife Loraine Bright who later changed her name to Kiran. Now, ahead of her next film ‘Sadak 2,’ let’s look back at her story.
Pooja Bhatt made her acting debut in 1989 with Daddy at the age of 17, but her relationship with alcohol begun a year earlier. At an innocent age of 16, she started experimenting with alcohol and at the age of 23, she got addicted to smoking cigarettes. The Bhatts are known to be extremely open as a family and hence no one stopped Pooja from falling into this deep hole. Pooja used to share her alcohol and cigarettes with her father and having several bottles of wine and beer in the house became extremely common.
During this, her professional career faced several ups and downs and her only constant during these times was her alcohol. Soon her family started to get extremely concerned with her addiction which came at the cost of her acting career. She was not seen on the silver screen for many years and she had become a forgotten face. Slowly, after her half-sister Alia Bhatt’s success at the movies, Pooja was only described as Alia’s stepsister. But, in 2016, a phone call with this one person changed her perspective of life.
In 2016, her concerned father Mahesh Bhatt told her one thing that made her quit drinking alcohol immediately. He said, “I love you, beta.” Pooja replied saying, “I love you too Papa and I don’t love anyone more than you.” After which Mahesh instantly said, “If you love me then learn to love yourself because I reside within you.”
At this exact moment, Pooja realised that harming herself with these addictive substances is like harming her father which she could not stand, and she immediately gave up on drinking. She had to counsel herself and win her battle against alcohol.
In an interview in 2018, where she’d been away from alcohol for 18 months, she spoke her heart out. She quoted, “I feel even more wise and even more evolved today, so I would really like to redo lots of things.” Now she speaks about her past addiction much more because she feels women who are addicted to alcohol or any other abusive are told to quietly recover in a corner without sharing her experience. Pooja believes if her story persuades even 1 woman to face her problems, her contribution to the world will precede her contribution to her cinema.
Now Pooja is ready to face the camera again with the sequel of her hit film ‘Sadak 2’ co-starring Sanjay Dutt, Alia Bhatt and Aditya Roy Kapur and is directed by Mahesh Bhatt. This film is going to release directly to an OTT platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now we cannot wait to see a recharged Pooja Bhatt back on screen.
