Look what Pooja Bhatt dug out from the archives - photos of sisters Alia Bhatt and Shaheen Bhatt from when they were much younger. Alia and Shaheen were actually part of 1997's critically acclaimed film Tamanna, which starred Pooja Bhatt in the eponymous role, who also produced the project. Sharing a collage of photos from the film's set, also featuring Paresh Rawal and Ashutosh Rana, who played primary roles in the movie, Pooja described her post as a case of "sister act". A part of Pooja's post is dedicated to her two sisters and read: "What most people don't know though is that both my sisters Alia and Shaheen were in it too. Alia played a younger me and Shaheen played Ashutosh Rana's daughter and even brought her own toys to the shoot which we used as props. So my father cast all three of his daughters in the same film... a fact that has been forgotten with time. I stumbled upon these photos today when I was continuing my obsessive, self-assigned task of salvaging the tons of photo albums that lie discarded in a corner of our office. We are nothing but memories and these comprise some of the best."
Tamanna marked Pooja Bhatt's debut project as a producer and was also directed by Mahesh Bhatt. Paresh Rawal was singled out for his performance as a eunuch in the social drama, which won the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues in 1998. Pooja Bhatt, who played Paresh Rawal's onscreen daughter in and as Tamanna, provided a detailed plot of the storyline.
"I was all of 24 when I produced my first film Tamanna - a true life story about a eunuch named Tikku, who during the holy month of Ramzan, found an infant abandoned in a garbage dump, her face half eaten by rats and brought her up as his very own. Tamanna dealt with the discomforting truth of female infanticide that plagues our country and proved that courage and largesse often are attributes of the truly marginalised-in this case a eunuch who gave Tamanna a new shot at life when her own father wanted her dead merely because she was born a girl," wrote Pooja Bhatt.
Pooja Bhatt is the elder daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and his ex-wife Kiran Bhatt, born as Loraine Bright. Alia and Shaheen are his children with Soni Razdan, who also shared the throwback photos on Instagram and wrote: "Oh my oh my where did the years fly. Alia in Tamanna not a very long time ago." For Shaheen, she added: "Baby Shaheen shows off her acting chops in Tamanna."
See Pooja Bhatt's post here.
Meanwhile, Alia quickly picked out her favourite photo from the lot and posted a message for her big sister:
Shaheen Bhatt, now 29, has frequently opened up about her battle with depression and is said to be writing a book on her struggles with the condition. Alia Bhatt, 25, has films like Brahmastra, Gully Boy and Kalank in the pipeline.