Pooja Bhatt talks playing her grandmother in Zakhm: ‘A Muslim woman who took me to Siddhivinayak temple’

Actor Pooja Bhatt has shared a warm post about playing her grandmother in her dad’s 1998 hit film, Zakhm. Talking about the ‘true spirit of India,’ Pooja mentioned how her grandmother was a Muslim woman who would take her to temples and churches.

“15th December 1998 is when our film #zakhm got censored. A film where I had the privilege of playing my grandmother, Shirin Nanabhai Bhatt-a Muslim woman who took me to Siddhivinayak temple every Tuesday & to church every Wednesday & Friday.That is the true spirit of India,” she wrote in a tweet. Pooja played a young Kunal Kemmu’s mother in the film. The character was played by Ajay Devgn as a grown up.

Zakhm was a big critical and commercial success and a semi-autobiographical story of Mahesh Bhatt and his relationship with his mother. Shirin’s father was a Hindu while her mother was a Muslim. Mahesh’s father was a film producer Nanabhai Bhatt. Talking about his parents, Mahesh had called himself the ‘bastard-child of a single Muslim mother’.

“I remember asking my mother what the meaning of my name was. She said, I’ll ask your father, he’s the one who named you. So, I waited until the next time he came around and said that Mahesh meant ‘Maha-Eesh’ the God of gods. But as a child I didn’t like this angry God who beheaded his own son. I’d have much preferred to be named after Ganesha. I used to sleep with a little Ganesha under my pillow as a child, he was my favourite deity. Just like Ganesha’s father, my father was a stranger to me. He was absent,” he said in an interview to screenwriter and author Kausar Munir.

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Zakhm was based on the Bombay riots of 1992 and starred Ajay with Sonali Bendre and Nagarjuna. It won Ajay his first National Award for Best Actor.

Pooja has worked with her father again in upcoming film Sadak 2. Her half sister and actor Alia Bhatt plays the lead in the film. Actors Sanjay Dutt and Aditya Roy Kapoor are also a part of the cast. Sadak 2 is the sequel of 1991 film directed by Mahesh and starring Pooja and Sanjay as leads.

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