New Delhi, May 28, 2026: The personal lives of the Bhatt family have kept Bollywood tabloids busy for decades. From whirlwind romances to highly publicized separations, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s unconventional choices have frequently dominated entertainment headlines. Recently, veteran actor-filmmaker Pooja Bhatt addressed one of the most long-standing narratives surrounding her family: whether her father changed his religion to Islam to marry his second wife, actress Soni Razdan.
In a candid, deep-dive interview, Pooja stripped away the decades of media sensationalism, offering an intimate look at her parents’ relationship dynamic. Rather than focusing on legal loopholes or religious paperwork, she redefined the conversation by emphasizing a foundational truth about her father: “He never left my mom.”
The Reality Behind the ‘Religion Change’ Rumors
For years, archival Bollywood reporting and legal biographies have asserted that when Mahesh Bhatt fell in love with Soni Razdan in the mid-1980s, he chose to convert to Islam. Under India’s Special Marriage Act and personal laws, a legally married Hindu man cannot wed a second time without divorcing his first spouse. Media narratives at the time claimed that Mahesh bypassed this hurdle by adopting his mother’s faith (his mother, Shirin Mohammad Ali, was a Muslim, while his father was a Hindu Nagar Brahmin), allowing him to enter a parallel marriage with Soni without legally severing ties with his first wife, Kiran Bhatt (born Lorraine Bright).
When asked directly about this religious transition during a recent interview with entertainment journalist Vickey Lalwani, Pooja shifted the spotlight away from legal strategy to the emotional reality of her father’s character.
Through her explanation, Pooja contextualized the decision not as a calculated maneuver to abandon his past life, but rather as an effort to legitimize his new relationship without discarding the old one. To the Bhatts, the arrangement wasn’t about legal technicalities—it was about a lifelong commitment to emotional responsibility.
A Childhood Informed by Radical Honesty
Growing up in a household where standard societal norms were routinely challenged wasn’t seamless. Pooja admitted that her father’s second marriage caused immense pain to her mother, Kiran. However, what saved the family from toxic fractures was a policy of complete transparency.
Mahesh Bhatt did not hide his changing affections behind a “conspiracy of silence,” a trait Pooja notes is all too common in patriarchal setups. Reflecting on how her father broke the news of his relationship with Soni Razdan, Pooja shared:
- No Hiding: The relationship blossomed during the making of the seminal 1984 family drama Saaransh, which Soni frequented.
- Direct Communication: One night, Mahesh woke an adolescent Pooja up to tell her directly that he had met Soni and would be establishing a new home.
- The Reassurance: He promised her that moving out did not mean he loved her any less or that she was being abandoned.
“Many people later questioned whether such honesty was appropriate for a child,” Pooja remarked, defending her father’s transparency. “But I say, if he wasn’t going to tell me, who would? I would rather have heard it from my father’s or mother’s mouth than read it in Stardust magazine, Cine Blitz, or hear it from the neighborhood gossip.”
Navigating Guilt and Evolution: The Bond with Soni Razdan
Pooja’s modern relationship with her stepmother, Soni Razdan, and her half-sisters, Alia and Shaheen Bhatt, is often praised for its warmth. Yet, Pooja openly acknowledged that this harmony was hard-won. In past throwbacks, she admitted to resenting Soni during her teenage years, occasionally flaring up at the mere mention of her name. It was her mother, Kiran, who stepped in to offer a broader perspective, constantly reminding her children that Mahesh was fundamentally a good man whose romantic relationship had simply run its course.
Over time, this maturity allowed a deep friendship to form between Pooja and Soni. Pooja recalled a pivotal, emotional moment between them under the stars in Ooty during the pre-production of a shelved film project titled Love Affair.
Soni approached Pooja, carrying years of unspoken heavy-heartedness, confessing, “Pooja, I too feel so guilty… I felt very guilty.”
“There Are No Villains in Life”
Today, the Bhatt family operates less like a traditional hierarchy and more like an interconnected ecosystem built on mutual respect and forgiveness. Pooja highlighted that her parents have managed to maintain an elegant decorum. They never pitted their children against each other, and Kiran forgave Mahesh decades ago.
Demonstrating the unique warmth that exists between her parents today, Pooja shared an anecdote of a recent afternoon. Mahesh visited her home in Bandra, hungry, and Kiran willingly made poha for him. While eating, Kiran read sections of Mahesh’s book, The Ashes Are Warm, which details his turbulent past, including his intense relationship with the late actress Parveen Babi.
Upon reading about the painful moments of Parveen’s arrest, Kiran closed the book, visibly moved, and told Mahesh, “I realized after reading this book that there are no villains in life.”
Ultimately, Pooja Bhatt’s reflections offer a refreshing counter-narrative to standard celebrity scandal. In a world obsessed with legal labels and finding someone to blame, she frames her family’s journey around emotional maturity and accountability. To her, love isn’t about rigid legal geography or maintaining societal appearances; it’s about standing by someone morally through thick and thin, even when the world stands on the other side.