In an exclusive interview with Lehren Retro, Dharmesh Darshan addresses and vehemently denies Mahesh Bhatt's allegations of an illegitimate child claim. This revelation sheds light on a controversial and highly publicized dispute, bringing the truth to the forefront.
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00:00 Toy, you mentioned your mother's name was Sheila Nanabhai Bhatt and she was Mahesh Bhatt's
00:08 older sister, older by almost 10 years.
00:11 A decade.
00:12 Yeah.
00:13 You know, in the 80s, Mahesh Bhatt told us, he gave us an interview that he was the illegitimate
00:21 son of Nanabhai Bhatt and that his parents never got married, that he was the son of
00:27 a Muslim lady called Shireen Ali and that his father never married his mother, therefore
00:33 he is illegitimate, so is Mahesh Bhatt.
00:36 But that would include your mother as well because she was his sister.
00:39 So how do you feel about this?
00:41 And I just want to ask you this because I remember your father had been outraged by
00:46 it and he was the only one who came out and said something about it.
00:49 Yeah, he was Punjabi.
00:51 Yeah, he was angry and he said something.
00:53 Because it was rubbish.
00:54 You see, forgive my father, he was protective about my mother but he was not a very expressive
01:00 man.
01:01 Okay.
01:02 Plus he was outraged.
01:03 What does this thing come up after 50 years he was like this?
01:07 For making films and money.
01:09 There is very little truth to it.
01:11 Every truth can be distorted.
01:13 Mahesh Mama is my Mama, my Saga Mama.
01:15 My mother was obsessed with him.
01:17 Okay.
01:18 So I blame my mother also for it.
01:20 Forget my grandmother.
01:23 It was rubbish.
01:26 What do you mean by rubbish?
01:27 Rubbish 1939, this I won't say, especially in this mahal.
01:33 1939, my grandmother and my grandfather got married.
01:40 1959 came with Murarji Desai, the Hindu marriage act.
01:44 By that time my mother also was married.
01:48 So how my mother, my original grandmother, Shirinji, I didn't even know her mother was
01:53 Shirinji until Mahesh Mama had such an issue.
01:56 I'm brought up by my maternal grandparents.
01:57 When I was born, my mother was ill for five years.
02:01 I lived in Silver Sands at Shivaji Path with Mahesh Mama, Mukesh Mama, my Maasis, my gorgeous
02:07 Maasis.
02:08 Maasis means your mother's, meaning Shirin, Alice.
02:11 No, no, those are my mother's Maasis, my Maasis.
02:15 Like Mahesh, but it's my Mama's, my Maasis, Purnimaasi, Chotumasi, Shilaji's sisters,
02:23 all younger than her.
02:25 So they brought me up for those five, six years.
02:26 I never saw my grandfather or grandmother absent.
02:29 What night is not coming?
02:31 He made 108 films in 20 years.
02:35 Can you imagine, Nana Bhai Bhatji, can you imagine directing 108 films in 20, 25 years?
02:40 Where does the man have time to sleep or eat?
02:45 I had an extraordinary other grandmother.
02:48 The legitimate one or they were both legitimate?
02:50 They were both legitimate because I saw both of them.
02:55 My Mama's, Pappu Mama, my mother sent him to Japan to study.
03:01 Who is Pappu Mama?
03:02 The other supposedly stepmama.
03:04 Okay, okay.
03:05 Not Robin Bhatt.
03:06 No, now coming to Robin Mama, all my Mama's and Mami's, supposedly of this other religion
03:13 thing, Shila is the name, Purnima is the name, Kumkum is the name, Hina is the name, Hina
03:18 is the name which goes in both the names.
03:20 Mahesh is Shivji's name, Mukesh is the name.
03:23 Instead, Maa Robin naam hai.
03:25 So, and you know.
03:27 You mean Nana Bhai's Gujarati wife.
03:30 Gujarati wife, wife.
03:32 But if you saw my grandmother, this is a photo here.
03:34 She used to wear a Gujarati saree, she spoke Gujarati, she wore a bindi, she wore a Mangal
03:40 Sutra.
03:41 So, I felt what is this whole thing.
03:42 So, when you lived in your mother's house, they were vegetarian.
03:50 Mahesh Bhatt himself is vegetarian.
03:51 They were so strict Gujarati in that sense.
03:54 So, you never saw Shireen Ali as a Muslim?
03:58 The name on the doorway was Mrs. S.N.
04:01 Bhatt.
04:02 But my mother's name is Sneha till 16 or 18.
04:06 It never occurred to me.
04:07 I used to call her Mamma.
04:08 I never called her Amma.
04:09 I get it now.
04:10 So, you mean to say that this entire story of Mahesh Bhatt being illegitimate and that
04:17 his father and mother never got married.
04:18 This is his viewpoint, except he should have been more responsible for it.
04:23 Because if you're alone, as he's shown in his films, I think Kumar Gaurav is alone in
04:26 Janam or something.
04:27 But when you have three sisters who are married into traditional homes and have children,
04:34 what rubbish are you making?
04:36 Every card of every daughter had Mr. and Mrs. Nana Bhatt inviting you for the Kanyadaan.
04:41 Every Kanyadaan my grandfather has done.
04:44 That poor man was, what was he flocked for?
04:49 Great man.
04:50 What are you saying?
04:52 Yes.
04:53 And I'm saying this with utter conviction.
04:56 You can see how I've answered all the questions.
04:59 Yes, this may be Mahesh Bhatt's viewpoint for cinema.
05:03 But unfortunately, as far as I'm concerned, and I'm a person who doesn't talk rubbish.
05:09 But he made a film called Najais, which was supposed to be based on his life.
05:13 Please see the film again.
05:14 It's only called Najais.
05:15 There's nothing in the film.
05:16 Well, there is Pooja Bhatt playing Zakkam also.
05:22 I haven't seen this film.
05:23 They're perturbing.
05:24 Yes, but there are songs, very lovely songs.
05:27 Gali Mein Chaar Nikht.
05:29 Mahesh Bhatt has a very good sense of music.
05:31 No doubt.
05:32 So now that indicated.
05:33 See, he and mummy are two...
05:37 Which night did my grandfather...
05:40 He was in Mehboob Studios.
05:42 He was in Filmistan, Filmala.
05:45 He had three hours to sleep making 108 films.
05:51 And my grandmother had six children and the other grandmother had three children.
05:54 Yeah, but what I'm trying to say is he made a film where he had these beautiful songs.
06:01 So that song itself indicated an absentee father that she's waiting for her husband
06:07 and he's not turning up.
06:08 No, when he was not an absentee grandfather.
06:11 I doubt he could have been an absentee father.
06:14 Or an absentee husband.
06:15 Husband?
06:16 I want to tell you a story about him.
06:20 He was at the fair end of his career after 108 films.
06:22 On his verge to become physically blind.
06:25 I was a six year old child.
06:28 He loved my mother because she was his first born.
06:30 He was very proud of her.
06:33 Of her sensitivity, of her dignity and everything.
06:36 He took me to Nasik for a shoot in the car.
06:41 I was this pampered Punjabi boy.
06:43 I wanted to eat fish.
06:47 He said, "Daal kha lo."
06:48 I said, "Nahi, daddy."
06:49 I used to call him.
06:50 I called my father, "Dad."
06:52 I used to call him, "Daddy."
06:53 "Daddy, mujhe machhi chahiye."
06:54 But I didn't know how to be a girl.
06:55 Kata mujhe kha jaata tha.
06:56 Do you know that gentleman who never touched onions and tomatoes?
07:01 Who was from Viramgang in Gujarat.
07:04 Who never had a single, except for this nonsense candle which was brought up at age 70 for
07:08 him.
07:10 Who led such a honest life.
07:14 You know.
07:16 Those days you were allowed two wives.
07:21 Arey, 59.
07:22 Now what does he do at 59?
07:23 It's 20 years to his marriage.
07:25 He's got six children.
07:26 My elder daughter, my mother's married.
07:28 She has a son who's my elder brother.
07:30 And then suddenly after so many years, this nonsense.
07:33 Now, unfortunately, all of us didn't contradict it.
07:37 We thought it will die, die.
07:40 And our love for Mahesh Mama.
07:42 The way I believe whether he negates it in his heart, he knows this is not nice.
07:52 Because there are real, you know what I feel bad about it?
07:54 There are really illegitimate children in this world.
07:58 Illegitimate partners, illegitimate people on multiple levels.
08:02 You're mocking them by making a sharaad of this.
08:07 Don't do it.
08:08 It's a very sensitive topic.
08:12 It hurts generations.
08:13 Did it affect your parents?
08:16 My father, my mother got Parkinson's.
08:23 The doctor was, that's your friend.
08:26 Chunky Pandey's mother was my mother's schoolmate from Kanosar.
08:31 As she shared that she got Parkinson's after 10 years because of it.
08:35 She got so worked up and she didn't know what to do.
08:44 She got Parkinson's.
08:45 One of the reasons she got, it's not you can get it from umpteen years.
08:49 It triggered it.
08:50 Triggered it.
08:51 And my father went into Alzheimer's.
08:52 What you're trying to say is that Mahesh, what revelation which was according to you
08:57 untrue.
08:58 His dishonest revelation.
08:59 It disturbed your mother so much that it triggered Parkinson's.
09:06 After 10, she bottled it so much.
09:09 You see, my father was right.
09:12 Suddenly why should he be answering?
09:14 You know, people are teasers.
09:15 People are mean.
09:16 He's got such a great life.
09:19 He's a big man.
09:20 Why should he suddenly answer who is about his mother-in-law's thing and his wife's thing.
09:26 He said, what crap is this?
09:28 But I'm surprised that your grandparents who were alive at that time, they didn't come
09:31 out and make it.
09:32 My grandfather made a statement in the paper.
09:36 He gave a piece in his blindness.
09:39 Bharti, how much can 80 year old people, blind, how much will they rock the boat?
09:50 Please.
09:54 Another thing, my grandfather gave a statement that why is he doing this?
09:58 We are a united family.
10:00 I have nine children.
10:02 I have two wives.
10:05 So what was it that affected your mother and father so much?
10:11 The outrage.
10:12 The dishonesty.
10:14 The dishonesty and my mother's extreme weakness for her brother.
10:21 Who she had seen, elder sisters at that time, who was a 10 year, she was the first daughter,
10:27 he was the first son.
10:28 So there was a 10 year gap.
10:29 10 year gap.
10:30 And she was like his mother because the other children, she washed him, bathed him.
10:37 And then at 16, she was married off.
10:39 She was crazy about her brother.
10:41 She has two brothers, Mukesh Mama also, and of course, Robin Mama and the other one, they
10:45 also the other.
10:47 But Mahesh Mama and my mother look the same.
10:51 How do I explain this to you?
10:53 She was a lady, he was a man.
10:56 Two sides of the coin.
10:58 Hyper sensitive people.
11:01 Extremely emotionally sharp.
11:03 She didn't get into the market.
11:04 She never needed to be.
11:06 Could be he had his reasons of survival in the market.
11:09 But I just feel that if you're alone and you don't make others answerable for you, please
11:14 do whatever you want.
11:16 But then if others you're making answerable for unnecessary market reasons, why do it?
11:25 I fought with him also.
11:26 You did?
11:27 Yeah.
11:28 But in my cultured way.
11:30 I said, you know what you're doing to my mother.
11:35 But when your mother passed on, your father passed on.
11:37 He was there everywhere.
11:38 He was there.
11:39 Because I was here as well.
11:40 Love and all is very much there.
11:41 I'm not calling him Mahesh and all.
11:43 He's Mahesh Mama.
11:44 Are you getting me?
11:46 Why my cousins and all, Pooja.
11:49 I told you I was thinking of Rajendra.
11:50 Shaheen is a very sweet girl.
11:52 I don't know Alia.
11:53 Both my mommies are beautiful.
11:55 Okay.
11:56 Kiran mommy was something else only.
11:57 Her name was Lauren Bright.
12:00 Soni I don't know so much.
12:02 You know, she's civil.
12:03 Okay.
12:04 Mukesh Ma's wife, Neelu mommy.
12:05 I've got extraordinary.
12:06 These are all, these guys, you know what I mean to say.
12:11 You know how it happens.
12:12 But you know, every time I feel, jaane do.
12:18 He was there at my father's funeral.
12:20 So instead he took my hand and he took me around and lit the funeral pyre.
12:24 So he's, he's a very, he's a very nice person.
12:27 He's a very sweet person.
12:28 I've known Mahesh as a very nice person.
12:29 Let me tell you, Mahesh Ma knows nothing about how to handle a bank account.
12:35 That Mukesh Ma, Mahesh Ma.
12:37 Mahesh Ma is a very deeply, he's really, he's not pretending to be.
12:45 Mahesh Ma bohot protective bhi ho sakte hain.
12:49 Once I had a problem with Anupam Kher in Lotte Re, who I had very good relationship with.
12:53 Mahesh Ma set it equally.
12:55 Aisa nahi hai.
12:58 My mother would talk, you know, my mother, before her death, the rakhi which came, she
13:02 had just turned up, she had stopped tying rakhi to them.
13:05 He had gone for lunch, she landed at Mukesh Ma's office.
13:07 In that ill state from the hospital, she went.
13:11 She somewhere sensed she's going, she tied rakhi on them, that thing, asked for his protection.
13:16 He came running home.
13:17 I believe they locked the door for the maasi, told me for five, six hours.
13:19 I don't know what they spoke.
13:22 Your mom and Mukesh Ma?
13:24 Mahesh Mama.
13:25 So this was just before she passed on?
13:27 Three, four months.
13:28 I wish I knew what they spoke.
13:31 But I think I underreacted first in my silence.
13:34 You know, I think that took a toll on me how, that Mahesh Ma did so much of media giri, that
13:40 I just shrunk from it.
13:43 I'm articulate, I'm expressive.
13:46 I was super successful, I had my reach.
13:48 Of course, today social media, he could not do this in social media.
13:54 Because the counters would have come up.
13:56 Immediately.
13:57 Chalo the next generation, sisters and all are forgiving, nephews, nieces, grandchildren,
14:02 are you getting what I'm saying?
14:04 And my other grandmother, what a lady.
14:10 You mean Nana Bhai's Gujarati wife, who is Robin Bhatt's mother, she was a nice lady?
14:16 She was not nice, she was outstanding.
14:20 But Mahesh has always talked about the trauma he had as a child when he went to Mithra.
14:25 Please.
14:26 Which is why he said he got put off by Hindu rituals and Hinduism, etc.
14:31 Where does Hinduism come into all this?
14:34 That was a Hindu household.
14:36 This was also Hindu household.
14:38 Where does this religion bashing come?
14:42 You know what I'm saying?
14:45 This Mahesh has said it.
14:46 I'm not making it up.
14:47 I do deny it.
14:48 That's why I'm answering you deeply.
14:49 You're not saying anything wrong.
14:50 You're saying, instead you're underplaying what all he has said.
14:54 I think it's gracious of you.
14:55 I feel, yes, what can I deny?
14:58 She was a nice lady.
15:01 She was not nice Bharti.
15:02 She was even better than my own grandmother.
15:07 No one can be what she was.
15:08 She was a gracious lady.
15:11 She was gracious.
15:12 Because you came from the other family.
15:14 Yeah, she was gracious.
15:15 She was gracious to a point of nobility.
15:19 All my three of them, Nana Bhai Bhattji, Mrs. S. N. Bhatt, Shireen Nana Bhai Bhattji, my
15:25 original grandmother, blood grandmother, and my other grandmother.
15:31 I'm forgetting her name.
15:33 Please forget me.
15:35 And because I would also call her Mamma.
15:37 So if I call this one Mamma, I'm calling her Mamma.
15:41 I'm not calling her auntie or something.
15:44 Incidentally, my mother, I believe in the first seven years was brought up by her.
15:50 Because for first seven years, there was no child to both the mothers.
15:52 Then the baggage came after my grandfather became a director and seven children came
15:57 from both sides.
15:59 So that time, you know.
16:01 [MUSIC PLAYING]
16:04 (upbeat music)
16:06 you