Is Mahesh Bhatt the controversial sugar daddy of Bollywood?

It is not new to see filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt embroiled in a controversy, the man has been a crowned king of troubles with his past personal and professional equations. Right from his marriage with Kiran Bhatt (earlier known as Lorrain Bright), hitting the rocks due to his extra-marital affair with actress Parveen Babi to his many reported affairs, his controversial statements about Bollywood and his fiery nature has made Mahesh Bhatt infamous for controversies. Take a look at his vibrant yet controversial life…

The women in his life

With all of Mahesh Bhatt’s reported philandering ways, it has been established that Bhatt has never been a one-woman man. In fact, he is said to have had many affairs in his life, right from his first marriage with Kiran Bhatt (Pooja and Rahul Bhatt’s mother), Mahesh was in the news for his extra-marital affair with actress Parveen Babi. And while Bhatt moved in with his lady love, their love story had a tragic ending with Parveen succumbing to paranoid schizophrenia. After this rough patch, followed by his divorce with Kiran, Bhatt married Soni Razdan (Alia and Shaheen Bhatt’s mother), however, news about the filmmaker’s affair kept surfacing. 

While in the ’80s Mahesh Bhatt came in the bad light for his lip-lock with daughter Pooja Bhatt on a magazine cover, his outlandish statement that if Pooja wasn’t his daughter, he would have loved to marry her, raised many eyebrows. And with times, Mahesh was linked with a couple of names, in fact, his video of touching late actress Jiah Khan inappropriately had once surfaced online taking the internet by storm. 

And very recently, Mahesh’s closeness to actress Rhea Chakraborty gained fuel with actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide. Not only did pictures of Mahesh and Rhea’s personal moments surfaced on social media, but even their Watsapp chats from the day and few days prior to Rajput’s death were reported online, making Bhatt a prime suspect in the case. While SSR’s death case is being investigated now by the CBI, Bhatt might even be pulled for his cryptic tweet about dying men on the day Rajput died. 

His Brawls in Bollywood

While Mahesh Bhatt has been said to have translated his colourful love life into films like Aashiqui and Woh Lamhe, in his journey spanning for four decades, there have been many snarky statements Bhatt has made about Bollywood actors. On national television, Mahesh Bhatt has rundown Aamir Khan and his craft on a chat show, and not just this he has even gone on to call Sanjay Leela Bhansali an overrated director and Kajol an overrated actress on the same show. Even during the AIB Roast controversy, Mahesh pointed out that Sonakshi Sinha was left out from some FIRs because she was an MP’s daughter. 

However, his biggest brawl in Bollywood was with actress Kangana Ranaut who was launched by Bhatt. Just a year back, Kangana and Rangoli accused Bhatt of throwing a slipper at her during an event. The Ranaut sisters revealed that after Kangana turned down a film offered by Bhatt, the producer-director in a fit of rage almost assaulted the actress, but he was stopped by his daughter Pooja. Kangana also accused that Bhatt chased her out of the screening of her own film by throwing a slipper at her. 

Mahesh Bhatt and the media

Mahesh being someone who has never minced his words and always spoken his mind, has also been said to misbehave with the media at times. Not only, has the 70-year-old filmmaker been rude to media at events, he is also said to have verbally abused reporters at times when he was questioned about something. 

Well, while he continues to live in this unabashed manner, he has been the crowned king of controversies and never let his detractors affect his sharp tongue.  As one of his colleagues from the industry once stated, “Mahesh is always right when he says the wrong things…”, the filmmaker is has been living up to this. 

Written by- Nawaz Kochra