Long before he became one of Hindi cinema’s most celebrated filmmakers, Mahesh Bhatt went through a deeply transformative spiritual phase as a follower of godman Rajneesh, popularly known as Osho. His association with the Pune-based guru eventually came to an abrupt end, triggering a bitter fallout that his daughter, Pooja Bhatt, still vividly remembers.Pooja recalled the dramatic events that unfolded after her father decided to walk away from the Rajneesh movement. “My father was part of the Rajneesh cult. He pulled his mala off his neck and flushed down the toilet,” recalled Pooja. “And then he was banned. He was the outlaw. I remember a message coming to my mother through Vinod Khanna, ‘Bhagwan is very angry. Bhagwan is going to destroy Mahesh.’ When I was a child, we were taken to a safehouse in Pune in the middle of the night,” she added in an interview with Cyrus Broacha. Pooja went on to compare Osho’s reaction to that of a “jilted lover”, claiming he found it difficult to accept followers leaving him. “He didn’t like people walking away from him. The same with Ma Sheela. The threat at the end of the day is, ‘Why can’t you keep me on the pedestal?’ Whether you’re a godman or a politician, you want to be worshipped,” Pooja said Ma Anand Sheela served as one of Osho’s closest aides for several years. Recalling her childhood visits to the ashram, Pooja shared some of the practices followers had to observe. “I’ve been to the Osho ashram. I’ve touched Osho’s feet as a child. They would sniff you because Bhagwan wouldn’t like any fragrance because his aura would be pervaded. You couldn’t use perfume or shampoo,” revealed Pooja. The Osho ashram is located in Pune’s Koregaon Park. Mahesh Bhatt has previously spoken about the circumstances that drew him towards Osho. After his films ‘Manzilien Aur Bhi Hain’ (1974) and ‘Vishwasghaat’ (1977) failed commercially, he said he found himself searching for answers beyond cinema.“I went to Osho Rajneesh, who was a charismatic guru from Pune. I went to him and devoted myself to him… ochre robes and meditation five times a day,” Mahesh said during an appearance on Arbaaz Khan’s chat show.Explaining what prompted him to leave the movement, the filmmaker admitted he could no longer reconcile his inner feelings with the spiritual image he was trying to project. “I thought that I still feel envious but I am saying holy words… I feel like a hypocrite. I can’t lie to the world and myself.” “This is worthless; I am a damn fool,” he recalled telling longtime collaborator and actor Vinod Khanna, whom he had also introduced to Osho. Mahesh later reflected on Vinod Khanna’s decision to remain with Osho even after he chose to leave.“When I turned away, he stayed — and then disappeared to Oregon. I even flew to America once, to try and bring him back. But he was too far gone,” recalled Mahesh. Vinod Khanna stepped away from films at the height of his stardom in the early 1980s to join Osho’s commune in Oregon before eventually returning to the film industry years later.
