Pooja Bhatt

Biography

Pooja Bhatt (born 24 February 1972) is an Indian film director, actress, voice-over artist and filmmaker. Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of Indian filmmaker, Mahesh Bhatt. Bhatt played her first leading role in Mahesh Bhatt's television film Daddy in 1989. 

For the film, she won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. Her breakthrough came with the romance comedy Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (1991), which also emerged as her highest-grossing release. She was a part of Bigg Boss OTT (Hindi season 2), where she emerged as the 4th runner-up.

Bhatt made her acting debut at age 17, in 1989 with Daddy, a TV film directed by her father Mahesh Bhatt. In the film, she portrayed a soul-searching teenage girl in an estranged relationship with her alcoholic father, played by actor Anupam Kher. Her performance in the film earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.

Her biggest solo hit and her big screen debut came with the romantic comedy Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (1991) opposite Aamir Khan, which was a remake of the Oscar-winning Hollywood classic It Happened One Night (1934). The film proved to be a breakthrough for Bhatt, post which she also appeared in many bold shoots like Stardust.

Her most well-known films in the 1990s included Sadak opposite Sanjay Dutt (1991), Junoon, Jaanam, and Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayee opposite Rahul Roy, Sir (1993) and Guneghar (1995) opposite Atul Agnihotri, Tadipaar (1993) and Naaraaz (1994) opposite Mithun Chakraborty, Hum Dono opposite Rishi Kapoor, Angrakshak opposite Sunny Deol (1995), Chaahat opposite Shah Rukh Khan (1996), Tamanna (1997) which won the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues, Border (1997) and Zakhm (1998), opposite Ajay Devgan, which won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration.

 Zakhm was based on the life of Mahesh Bhatt's mother Shirin Mohammad Ali, while his daughter Pooja Bhatt essayed her character in this film. Her last film appearance was in the English language film Everybody Says I'm Fine! in 2001. From 2003 to 2012, she focused on producing and directing. 

She made her directorial debut with Paap in 2004, starring John Abraham and Udita Goswami. Since then, she has made four more directorial ventures: Holiday (2006), Dhokha (2007), Kajraare (2010) and Jism 2 (2012).

In 2020, Bhatt returned to acting with Sadak 2, a sequel to the hit 1991 film. Her father returned to directing with this film after 20 years, while her half-sister Alia Bhatt also co-starred alongside her. It was released on 28 August 2020 on the streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar.

In 2021, Bhatt made her web series debut in the Netflix series Bombay Begums. It also featured Rahul Bose, Amruta Subhash, Shahana Goswami, Plabita Borthakur, and Aadhya Anand.

In 2022, she appeared in the film Chup: Revenge of the Artist.

In 2023, she participated in the popular reality show Bigg Boss OTT 2, where she emerged as the 4th runner-up of the season.