Name- Mahesh Bhatt

Date of Birth- 20 September 1948

Age- 72 years(as in 2020)

Religion- Islam (Converted)

Nationality- Indian

Mother- Shirin Mohammad Ali

Father- Nanabhai Bhatt

Sister– N/A

Brother- Mukesh Bhatt

Marital Status/Marriage- Married

Wife- Soni Razdan

Son- Rahul Bhatt

Daughter- Pooja Bhatt, Shaheen Bhatt and Alia Bhatt

Height- 5’7 approx.

Net Worth- $3 million approx.

Mahesh Bhatt Biography

Mahesh Bhatt is an Indian director, producer, screenwriter, actor and a prominent filmmaker of Bollywood industry. He was raised by a Hindu father and a Shia Muslim mother. His parents separated when he was young and so he was raised by his mother only. He is one of the filmmakers of India who needs no introduction. Infact in his career, he has not just learned to survive but to flourish too with the changing times. With movies like Arth, Sadak, Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin, Daddy, etc., he has proven his exceptional filmmaking skills.

Besides this, he is often credited for launching new talents in the industry as well. However despite all this, he has a knack of staying in limelight and giving his opinion on almost every topic. His life has been full of controversies and success. Lets’ now get in more detail about his life, career, wife, family, controversies and more in his biography article.

Mahesh Bhatt Family

He was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra into a high class Hindu family. His father name is Nanabhai Bhatt, a known director and producer of Hindi and Gujarati industry and mother name is Shirin Mohammad Ali who was a Gujarati Muslim and second wife of Nanabhai Bhatt. His step mother’s name is Hemlata Bhatt. He has 4 brothers named Mukesh Bhatt, Dhaval Bhatt, Robin Bhatt and Parmesh Bhatt. Out of these 4, his real brother is Mukesh Bhatt who is also a director and producer. Other than this, he has 4 sisters named Mamta, Sheila Darshan and Heena Suri.

He did his schooling from Don Bosco High School. While studying, he started doing summer jobs to earn money. Also, he used to make product advertisements. Later he was introduced to director Raj Khosla through his friends and started working as an assistant director to Raj.

Mahesh Bhatt Wife

He was married to his childhood love Lorrain Bright. They met when they were very young. In fact the movie “Aashiqui” was their story. After dating for some time, they married really young. Post marriage, Lorrain changed her name to Kiran Bhatt. The couple have two children named Pooja Bhatt and Rahul Bhatt. Unfortunately, their marriage ended after Mahesh had an affair with 1970s popular actress Parveen Babi.

The two of them started living together but later the actress fell to prey to paranoid schizophrenia, a rare medical condition. The love story that started with extra-marital affair had ended on a very tragic note. After some years, Parveen was found dead in her apartment. It is said that Mahesh has portrayed the story of Parveen in many of his movies including Woh Lamhe which starred actress Kangana Ranaut.

After years, Mahesh again found his love and this time with actress Soni Razdan. But since there was a delay in his divorce from his first marriage, he converted to Muslim in order to marry Soni. The couple have 2 daughters named Alia Bhatt and Shaheen Bhatt.

Other than all these, his name has also been linked with many younger actress including his own daughter Pooja Bhatt.

Mahesh Bhatt Career

He started his career by making product advertisements while he was studying. He then was introduced to director Raj Khosla through his friends and started assisting him. In 1974, he finally made his debut as movie director with “Mazilein Aur Bhi Hain”. But he got his first commercial success with movie “Naam” in 1984 starring Sanjay Dutt in the main lead. Post that, he directed number of movies including Janam, Sangharsh, Aashiqui, Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin, Sadak and made his place in the industry as one of the best directors.

After his directorial career, he decided to shift to screen writing and made his debut with movie “Arth” in 1982. He has written screenplays for several movies including Dushman, Raaz, Murder, Woh Lamhe, Hamari Adhuri Kahani, and more. Not just this, he is also a producer and produces movies under his banner “Vishesh Films”. The Bhatt’s are usually known for launching new talents in the industry. They have launched talents like Ashutosh Rana, Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut, etc.

In 2018, he made his acting debut with movie “The Dark Side of Life: Mumbai City”.  

Mahesh Bhatt Controversies

Mahesh Bhatt is one such personality of Bollywood industry who had been involved in number of controversies. Here are some popular instances he found himself in the middle of great controversies:

• He became talk of the town after he shot for a magazine cover with his daughter Pooja Bhatt in which they were seen kissing each other on the lips. For this, he was slammed by the people and later he further fueled the fire by saying, “If Pooja wasn’t my daughter, I’d love to marry her”. This doesn’t go well with his fans and they slammed him for this comment. Since then neither Mahesh nor his daughter Pooja have said anything on this controversy.
• His son, Rahul Bhatt who made headlines during 26/11 attacks for his alleged association with David Headley who was the main mastermind of this act, have talked about his relationship with his father and said, “Perhaps if Mahesh Bhatt had been a father to me, I wouldn’t have become friends with David Headley.” Though later, they sorted out their differences and now shares great bond.
• In popular chat show, Koffee with Karan when Mahesh was asked to rank actors as per their acting skills, he ranked actor Aamir Khan in the last position. Not just this, he further said, Kajol is an overrated actress and Sanjay Leela Bhansali is an overrated director. This doesn’t go with their fans and they trolled Mahesh for this on social media.
• We must have remember the AIB roast controversy that many big celebrities of Bollywood were part of. Post the event, Mahesh told a private channel that why no FIR was filed against actress Sonakshi Sinha alluding the fact that she is daughter of BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha. Though Sonakshi cleared the misunderstanding and informed him that even her name was in some FIRs where Alia’s name was not present.
• One of the most popular case when he was badly trolled by the people was when his name popped up in Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case, for his alleged relationship with Sushant’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty. Though it was not the first time when Rhea and Mahesh’s relationship created a buzz. Back in the year 2018, there were some viral photos of them in which they were seen in each other’s arms hugging. Then in 2020, some bits and pieces of their WhatsApp chats had gone public which made people speculate more about their relationship and Bhatt’s interference in Sushant and Rhea’s relationship.
• Another controversy which put Mahesh in the bad light was his controversy with actress Kangana Ranaut. Kangana said in an interview that only because she rejected a movie offer by Mahesh, he threw a chappal at her in the preview of her movie Woh Lamhe out of anger. As per reports, since then the two have been at loggerheads.
• Amid people growing dissatisfaction with his involvement in Sushant’s case, another clip of her with actress Jiah Khan went viral. In the viral video, he was seen with his arms draped around Jiah and their hands interwined. By looking at the video, it looks as if they were sharing a light moment but people called out at him for how he has been repeating his multiple actions with so many young actresses over the years.

Some Lesser Known & Interesting Facts About Mahesh Bhatt

Have a look at some of the interesting facts about him:

• Direction runs in his family as his father Nanabhai Bhatt was also a director. His father is best known for making mythological and historical movies like Lal Qila on the life of Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. Also, his daughter Pooja is also a director.
• Best known for sizzling dance numbers, actress Helen had finally got recognition with Bhatt’s movie Lahu Ke Do Rang in 1979. She even won Filmfare award for Best Supporting Actress for this film.
• The movie Saaransh which was directed by Bhatt was India’s official submission to Oscars under Best Foreign Language movie category in 1985. One of the cast members of that movie was Soni Razdan, who later married Mahesh after couple of years.
• Not just big screen, he has directed few series like Swabhimaan and Kabhie Kabhie in television industry. Also, he co-directed his first English TV series “A Mouthful of Sky”. This was written by author Ashok Banker.
• Few of his movies were adaption of Hollywood movies. Like movie “Kabzaa” was based on Waterfront and Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin was based on It Happened One Knight.
• In an interview, he said that he owes everything he is today to late actress Parveen Babi. He said this after her death. They were in relationship for two and a half years but it ended after Parveen fell prey to paranoid schizophrenia. He has made few movies like Arth and Woh Lamhe which are based on Parveen’s life.
• Emraan Hashmi and Milan Lutharia are related to his family. His mother was sister of both Hashmi and Luthra’s grandmother.
• He co-owns production house “Vishesh Films” along with his brother Mukesh Bhatt. The company is named after Mukesh’s son Vishesh who is also a director.
• Not many people know this Mahesh is a follower of philosopher UG Krishnamurti and even wrote his biography titled  “U.G. Krishnamurti, A Life” in 1992. Then in 2009, he wrote another book named “A Taste of Life: The Last Days of UG Krishnamurti”.
• He is a multi-talented personality who is not just an actor, director, producer, screenwriter but also a singer. Bhatt made his debut as singer with Emraan’s movie “Mr. X” title song.