Mahesh Bhatt's relationship with his son Rahul Bhatt has often been shaped by a painful similarity in their childhoods. Both grew up without a father being consistently present in their lives, and years later, Rahul felt that Mahesh had repeated some of the same patterns he had resented in his own father.
Rahul was born in the early 1980s, when Mahesh was married to Kiran. However, the filmmaker separated from Kiran when Rahul was only three. Rahul was therefore largely raised by his mother, while Mahesh's work kept him away from home for long periods. In S Hussain Zaidi's book Headley and I, Rahul said he was “never very attached to Mr Bhatt” and felt that his father had “never fulfilled the paternal responsibilities that come with having a child”.
He went even further, describing himself as a “super b*stard child”. Although Mahesh and Kiran were legally married, Rahul felt that his father's absence had left him with the same sense of abandonment that Mahesh himself had experienced while growing up.
Mahesh's own childhood was complicated. He was born to filmmaker Nanabhai Bhatt and Shirin Mohammed Ali, a Shia Muslim woman. Nanabhai had another family with his wife Hemlata and did not live with Mahesh, his mother and his siblings.
Speaking to The Times of India, Mahesh once recalled, “My father did not live with us. When he came home, he never took off his shoes – he wouldn't be staying.”
In a 2018 interview with Hindustan Times, he admitted that this left him without a clear idea of fatherhood. “I have no worthwhile memories of my father, therefore no idea of what a father's role should be,” he said.
That absence became part of the complicated equation between Mahesh and Rahul. Mahesh supported Kiran and their children financially, but Rahul wanted more than that. He wanted his father to be around.
“I was trying to love him like a son should love his father. At least, he could have tried too,” Rahul said.
Mahesh later acknowledged that his son had a valid grievance. Speaking to Hindustan Times, he said, “There was a wound there… I left home when he was around three and he felt I had abandoned the family for another woman. And this was a grievance I couldn't deny because it was true.”
Rahul also spoke about being bullied over his weight and the comments he heard about his parents. Recalling those years to Hindi Rush, he said, “People would make fun of me, my mother. And I was very angry about it. They would say that my father has left my mother.”
The father and son have since tried to repair their relationship. Their relationship remains complicated, but the two have also reconnected after years of distance.
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