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‘Daddy made me realise films can change lives’
It’s been 30 years since a naïve Pooja Bhatt was launched in Bollywood by her father, director Mahesh Bhatt, in Daddy. Today, she stands tall as one of the most outspoken and fearless filmmakers in the industry. Recalling how the whole experience of being on a film set was so new for her, Pooja says, “I remember being thrown into the deep end with Anupam Kher, Manohar Singh, Suhas Joshi, Raj Zutshi… such fine actors, all trained from National School of Drama. And they were so patient with me and never treated me like a newcomer in that sense.”
Her senior co-stars, she adds, “always showed me the route” and would often “stay back after their shots” to give her cues. “Not everyone does things like that but they realised Daddy was an author-backed role and if the female lead was not good, nobody would be good. Even I realised with the film that you are only as good as your co-stars, director and your role,” she explains.
However, the actorfilmmaker feels it’s different now. “[Now] People forget and confuse the ‘role’ with ‘acting’. They don’t say the role is nice but would praise the actor saying ‘Yeh kya kamaal ka kaam kar diya’. I was realistic in knowing that mine wasn’t a performance in isolation. It was drawn out of me and I’m very grateful for that,” Pooja says, going on to share an anecdote she cherishes till date.
“I was shooting for Prem Deewane with Jackie [Shroff] and Madhuri [Dixit-Nene] when a young girl came to me and said her parents wanted a picture with me, I happily agreed. She then told me, ‘My father stopped drinking after he saw Daddy’. That was the first time I realised films can change people’s lives,” she smiles.
A theatrical adaptation of Daddy was staged last year, narrating the story from a guilt-ridden woman’s point of view. Pooja is thrilled that even after 30 years, the film is so relevant. “Alcohol is still a problem. Back then, for Doordarshan to put money into a film that dealt with the taboo of alcoholism was a brave move. Today, if you go to a corporate channel they’ll say the theme is not commercial,” she says.
The 2018 play, Pooja explains, changed the game: “While you see Daddy through Anupam Kher’s perspective, there was no film on addiction through a woman’s perspective. That’s because there was no such perspective out there.”