Pooja Bhatt

Pooja Bhatt (born 24 February 1972) is an Indian actress, director, and filmmaker. She established herself as one of the leading actresses of Hindi cinema from the late 1980s through the early 2000s. She is the recipient of several accolades, including two National Film Awards and one Filmfare Awards.

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. In the following decade, Bhatt began portraying various of characters, garnering critical acclaim for her performances in Sadak (1991), Junoon (1992), Naaraaz (1994), Chaahat (1996), Tamanna (1997),  Border (1997), Kabhi Na Kabhi (1998), Angaaray (1998), Zakhm (1998).

She was a part of Bigg Boss OTT 2, where she emerged as the 4th runner up.

Early and personal life
Pooja Bhatt was born on 24 February 1972 to Mahesh Bhatt and Kiran Bhatt (born Loraine Bright). On her father's side, Bhatt is of Gujarati descent and on her mother's side, she is of English, Scottish, Armenian, and Burmese ancestry. She is the step-daughter of Soni Razdan. She has a brother, Rahul Bhatt and half-sisters Shaheen Bhatt and Alia Bhatt. Her cousins are Hitarth Bhat and Emraan Hashmi.

Personal life

Bhatt married restaurateur Manish Makhija in 2003, they divorced in 2014.

Career
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, The film is one of the highest-grossing movies of the year 1991. The film was inspired by the 1976 American film Taxi Driver. Then in 1992 she was seen in Prem Deewane, the film was directed by Sachin Pilgaonkar and produced by Ashok Ghai. The film was released in India on 12 June, which also stars an ensemble cast including Jackie Shroff, Madhuri Dixit, Vivek Mushran, Manohar Singh, Ashalata Wabgaonkar, Prem Chopra and Kamal Chopra.

Then she was cast in Junoon, Jaanam, and Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayee opposite Rahul Roy, her chemistry with Roy was widely appreciated by Critics. After starring in many hit movies, she did many films including, 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). Then in 1996 Bhatt, stars in Chaahat opposite Shah Rukh Khan, the film earned a total of inr 68700000 nett, and was declared "Below Average" by Box Office India. It was the 15th-highest-grossing film of the year in India.

She next starred as an abandoned girl in the thriller film Tamanna, which marked her first production venture under her Pooja Bhatt Productions. It also won the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues. Bhatt began 1997 with a role in Jyoti Prakash Dutta’s ensemble drama Border, the film was released worldwide on 13 June 1997 with positive reviews from critics and garnered critical acclaim for its story, execution, scale, showing off the battle, direction, screenplay, performances and soundtrack. It opened to strong box office results, had a final domestic net total of inr 394000000 and was declared an all-time blockbuster by Box Office India. It also became the highest-grossing Hindi film of 1997 in India, but if according to worldwide, it was the second highest-grossing film of the year behind Dil To Pagal Hai. Border grossed a worldwide total of ₹655.7 million and it was the fourth biggest blockbuster film of the 90s decade.

Bhatt gained further success in (1998) with the film Zakhm, 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 she essayed her character in this film.



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 Amruta Subhash, Shahana Goswami, Plabita Borthakur, Aadhya Anand and Rahul Bose.