In one of the most candid revelations from the Bhatt family in recent years, actor-filmmaker Pooja Bhatt has peeled back decades of silence to speak about her father Mahesh Bhatt's complex relationship with the late superstar Parveen Babi — a story that intertwines Bollywood's golden era, mental illness, and an extraordinary act of human loyalty.
In a deeply candid exclusive interview with journalist Vickey Lalwani in May 2026, filmmaker and actor Pooja Bhatt broke her long-standing silence on her father Mahesh Bhatt's controversial relationship with late actress Parveen Babi — a chapter that shaped her childhood and reshaped Bollywood's understanding of love, mental health, and family responsibility.
The Interview That Reopened a Bollywood Chapter
Speaking in a wide-ranging, deeply personal interview with entertainment journalist Vickey Lalwani on his YouTube channel, Pooja Bhatt addressed questions that Bollywood has sidestepped for years. The conversation covered her parents' separation, Mahesh Bhatt's relationship with the late Parveen Babi, and the emotional web that defined her family's most turbulent decades.
What distinguished this interview from the usual celebrity tell-alls was its measured honesty. Pooja spoke not with bitterness or score-settling, but with the quiet maturity of someone who has genuinely processed painful history — and wants the public record to reflect something closer to the truth.
Parveen Babi — The Woman Behind the Myth
Pooja's recollections of Parveen Babi were warm and personal. She revealed that her connection with the actress began in childhood, when Mahesh Bhatt would bring her along during his visits to Parveen's home.
"She was a beautiful woman and she always loved me."— Pooja Bhatt, recalling Parveen Babi
This was not the image most Indians knew — the paranoid recluse who filed police complaints against Amitabh Bachchan and claimed dignitaries were conspiring against her. Pooja was careful to clarify that she is not a medical professional and cannot diagnose what Parveen Babi suffered from, but she made it clear that the actress was deeply unwell, both mentally and physically, in her final years. She humanised Parveen at a time when public memory had reduced her to a cautionary tale.
Mahesh Bhatt's Relationship With Parveen Babi — The Emotional Reality
The relationship between Mahesh Bhatt and Parveen Babi has long been part of Bollywood lore — a passionate, turbulent bond that ended when her mental health deteriorated. Mahesh Bhatt himself later spoke about it in his book The Ashes Are Warm and it loosely inspired the 2006 film Woh Lamhe.
Pooja's account adds a layer of humanity to what has often been reported as scandal. She described how her mother Kiran Bhatt read passages from The Ashes Are Warm about Parveen Babi and was deeply moved. Kiran's response, according to Pooja, was quietly profound:
"I realised after reading this book that there are no villains in life."— Kiran Bhatt, as recalled by Pooja Bhatt
It is a sentence that reframes an entire narrative. The woman who could have harboured resentment toward Parveen Babi — after all, Mahesh Bhatt's relationship with her predated or overlapped with his marriage to Kiran — instead arrived at empathy. Pooja attributes this to her mother's emotional intelligence, and it says something equally significant about how the Bhatt family has chosen to deal with its complicated past.
The Last Rites That Nobody Else Would Perform
Perhaps the most striking detail in Pooja's account concerns the moment Parveen Babi died. When the actress passed away in January 2005, her body lay unclaimed at the hospital. No one came forward. It was Mahesh Bhatt who stepped in.
He retrieved her body and performed her last rites — honouring a bond that had technically ended decades earlier. Pooja described this act not as a gesture of residual romantic attachment, but as a reflection of who her father is: someone who does not abandon people he has loved, regardless of how the relationship ended.
Pooja Bhatt says a final text from dad Mahesh Bhatt ended her battle with alcoholismhttps://t.co/cqfBDbppes
— SCREEN (@ieEntertainment) May 29, 2026
A Family That Chose Understanding Over Resentment
The interview also shed light on how the Bhatt family's complex personal dynamics — Mahesh's separation from Kiran, his marriage to Soni Razdan, the blended family — were navigated with unusual grace. Pooja recounted how Soni Razdan herself expressed guilt over the breakdown of Mahesh and Kiran's marriage during a conversation in Coonoor. Pooja's response was notably mature: she told Soni that no outsider can destroy a relationship unless cracks already exist within it.
Pooja also disclosed a revealing detail: Mahesh Bhatt converted to Islam before marrying Soni Razdan so that he would not need to formally divorce Kiran Bhatt. Pooja's framing of this was not as a calculated legal manoeuvre, but as her father's attempt to legitimise his new relationship without severing his bond with his first wife — a reflection, she said, of a man who would never fully part ways with her mother.
Timeline: Mahesh Bhatt, Parveen Babi & The Bhatt Family Story
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Why This Matters: Mental Illness and Bollywood's Blind Spot
One of the more uncomfortable truths that emerges from Pooja's account is how completely Parveen Babi was abandoned in her final years. A woman who had been one of Hindi cinema's most luminous stars — the first Bollywood face on the cover of Time magazine, a sex symbol, a trailblazer — died alone in a locked flat, her body undiscovered for days.
The industry that had celebrated her had moved on. Nobody performed her last rites except the man she had once loved. This isn't merely tragic personal detail — it raises larger questions about how the entertainment industry treats those whose mental health crumbles, and how quickly the spotlight moves elsewhere.
Pooja was careful not to sensationalise Parveen's condition. She did not offer armchair diagnoses. She simply bore witness to what she had seen as a child — warmth, beauty, affection — and contrasted it with what the public narrative had reduced her to.
Pooja Bhatt's Own Emotional Journey
There is something deeply personal in how Pooja tells this story. She is not just recounting her father's history — she is placing herself within it, as the child who visited Parveen Babi's home, who was loved by her, who watched her father navigate extraordinary emotional terrain with an imperfect but genuine humanity.
Pooja has spoken before about her own battles with alcohol and the complexity of growing up in the Bhatt household. This interview adds another dimension: the child watching adults make difficult choices and, eventually, finding a way to understand those choices without erasing their pain.
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