Pooja Bhatt recalls becoming a star by 19, being written off at 24: ‘For 21 years I didn’t face the camera’

 

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Pooja then revealed why she gave up acting and chose to go behind the camera at the age of 25. She said, “At the age of 25 I started my production (house), made Tammanna. I won my first National Award, I got a sense of self gratification, I got my self-esteem back for making a film like that. I travelled throughout the country, met people, that film raised money for charity, I got my National Award. Then I made Dushman with Kajol, then I made Zakhm, and the rest is history.”

“Then I was producing and directing films, for 21 years I didn’t face the camera, I was behind the camera. I had accepted that the stardom phase is over and now you are in a new phase in your life when you’re making films. I made Jism 2 last, and launched Sunny Leone,” she added.

 

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After staying away from the glitz and glamour for over two decades, Pooja made her acting comeback with Netflix’s Bombay Begums (2021). Pooja revealed that when the makers of the series approached her with the script, she had first turned down the offer, thinking, ‘I am not an actor anymore.”

Pooja reminisced, “I thought it was over for me, and then Alankrita Shrivastava and Bornila (Chatterjee) sent me the script of Bombay Begums. I told them that I had shut this door, and that I am not an actor anymore, but they asked me to give it a read. When I read it, I felt it was amazing, I have to play this part. After 21 years I made a comeback.”

 

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Pooja then shared how with Bombay Begums’ success and her appearance on Salman Khan’s Bigg Boss OTT 2, she feels a sense of accomplishment.

“As they say, there are four seasons of fame, first they say ‘she has the potential,’ then they say, ‘she’s arrived,’ and then, ‘she’s over,’ and then they say, ‘she’s back!’. So I have enjoyed my four seasons of fame. In 2021 March, on International Women’s Day when Bombay Begums hit the OTT platform, suddenly I was like, ‘Oh my God, I have not got this kind of reaction for the last ten films I did’. Then Bigg Boss (OTT 2) happens, it was a totally different field.”

Pooja also revealed that when she was considering participating in the TV reality show, people told her, “you can’t go on Bigg Boss.” She said, “People told me, ‘Aap nahi Jaa sakti ho Bigg Boss pe (you can’t do Bigg Boss)’. I asked why, and they said that the platform used to be good, but now it is like people come to put others down, they come to scream and shout because they think that’s the only way they’ll get eyeballs. ‘Will you be able to go and hold on to yourself?’ At that time it was a test for me, so when I participated I said that I was going to play the game with dignity. I went with an open heart and left with an overflowing heart. I made genuine relationships in that house, I played the game with a sense of dignity, I didn’t bend my values and belief system. And I think I came out with my head held high. When Salman tells me so generously that this season will be known as the ‘Pooja Bhatt season’, it is, for me, ten times more than the trophy.”