When Mahesh Bhatt fell in love with actor Soni Razdan in the 1980s, he was already married to Kiran Bhatt and a father to two children, Pooja and Rahul. It was a turbulent time, yet Pooja’s maturity and compassion at a very young age stood out. On her podcast, The Pooja Bhatt Show, the filmmaker recently broke down as he revisited that chapter and recalled how his daughter handled the truth about his second marriage.
‘I thought you didn’t judge me’
Mahesh Bhatt remembered the difficult conversation with his daughter, when he told her that he would not be living at home anymore because there was another woman in his life. He reassured her that it was not a rejection of her and promised that he would always care for her mother and the household. Fighting back tears, he admitted he could never forget the way Pooja responded. “I can’t thank you enough for that expression,” he told her on the podcast. “Because you looked at me, and I thought you didn’t judge me.” To which Pooja simply said, “No, I didn’t judge you.”
Learning before her mother
Pooja revealed that she was the first to know about her father’s relationship with Soni Razdan. She recalled him sitting at the edge of her bed, telling her about the woman he had met and his decision to marry her and move out. For her, being trusted with this information even before her mother felt like being treated as an equal.
Cordial with Soni Razdan
Despite the upheaval, Pooja maintained her bond with her father and kept things cordial with Soni. Years later, she recalled, Soni admitted to her feelings of guilt. During a recce for the film Love Affair, Soni had told her how guilty she felt at the time. Pooja reassured her that it wasn’t her fault, saying, “You couldn’t have taken him away.”Mahesh Bhatt and Soni Razdan went on to marry and welcomed two daughters, Alia and Shaheen.
