EXCLUSIVE: Mahesh Bhatt recalls being stigmatised as ‘an illegitimate child’: Goons would ask me where my father is

Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt had no glorious childhood as most of us had. From being stigmatised as ‘an illegitimate child’ to feeling his father was an outsider, Mahesh Bhatt bares it all in the recent episode of The Invincibles that is been hosted by Arbaaz Khan on Bollywood Bubble. During the candid conversation, the director spoke about the highs and lows of his childhood.

Mahesh Bhatt on being an illegitimate child:

Bhatt spoke about how his parents met and how they were considered as the ‘illegitimate house’. Mahesh revealed that his mother concealed her identity.

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“When you are stigmatised as an illegitimate child talk about that I mean my parents it was in post-independent India in 1948 I was born my mother was a Shia Muslim and but we lived in Shivaji Park which is in the majority of the Faith of people there are Hindus there and she concealed her identity and she wore a saree and donned a tika so my father was a filmmaker very reputed filmmaker he fell in love with my mother but because of the religious biases that existed we were the illegitimate house so the leftovers came to us he his story was that there was no way that his mother was going to allow the other a Muslim woman right but they had fallen in love,” said Pooja Bhatt’s father.

Mahesh Bhatt on goons asking him about his father:

The Sadak director narrated how goons harassed him whenever he used to go out of the house. “When he entered our home, I felt as if an outsider had come. They said childhood is the most glorious phase of your life.”

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Mahesh, father of Alia Bhatt, then continued, “But my life was one of something that to be embarrassed about, something to be hidden. I had encounters with vicious elderly men who would push me into a corner and ask me where my father is and my sisters would lie that he’s gone for shooting and he’s gone here he’s gone there. One day, I said my father doesn’t live with us, he lives with his wife somewhere else in Andheri. My sisters came and told Mommy about it, I got the beating of my life but then I understood that after that these guys who were vicious to me stopped harassing me and I discovered people manipulate you from what you hide.”

Mahesh Bhatt’s parents Nanabhai Bhatt and Shirin Mohammed Ali were never married to each other.

Watch the full interview here:

Also read: EXCLUSIVE: Mahesh Bhatt ‘resisted’ his relationship with Soni Razdan: I told her to stay away or else ‘I’ll destroy you’