POOJA OPENS UP ON HOW SHE QUIT DRINKING

Actor-filmmaker Pooja

Bhatt (above) who quit drinking on Christmas last year, says that a person can do so only after realising and accepting that it can become an addiction.

“I stopped drinking by first acknowledging that I had a drinking problem. Because you’re a woman and you live in a society where you are forced to brush things under the carpet. We tend to bury this shameful habit that we have of covering it up and saying, ‘Oh, we don’t have a problem, it is somebody else’s and I’m not that drunk’,” she says.

Pooja, who made her acting debut with Daddy (1989), directed by her father and filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. The film ironically, revolved around an alcoholic father and how his daughter is helping him to quit Drawing parallels between the real and reel life, Pooja says, “It has been 90 days of my sobriety.”

The 45-year-old also shared that sometimes she deals with the pressure of people asking, ‘Hey, you’re not drinking? You must have a drink’. “It isn’t alcohol you’re addicted to, it’s the loneliness, which leads you to this habit.”

I stopped drinking by first acknowledging that I had a drinking problem. It is important to do that POOJA BHATT, ACTOR