Pooja Bhatt Returns To Acting As An Alcoholic Cop. What A 'Joke,' She Says

New Delhi: Pooja Bhatt is returning to acting with a crime drama based on City of Death, Abheek Barua's first novel, the actress-turned-filmmaker confirmed with an Instagram post on Monday. Ms Bhatt will feature as a middle aged ex-crime branch investigator based out of Kolkata. Her character, Rita Brown, is also an alcoholic who finds purpose in life once she's included in the investigation team for solving a mysterious murder case, set against the backdrop of The City Of Joy's Chowringhee area. While rest of the cast is yet to be decided, the film has been scheduled to go on floors before Christmas this year. City Of Death will be directed by Digvijay Sisodia, who is currently working on the script of the project.
 

 

Second Innings! #Cityofdeath #AbheekBarua #DigvijaySisodia #kolkata #RitaBrown #filmnoir

A post shared by Pooja B (@poojab1972) on Jun 18, 2017 at 9:28pm PDT

In an explosive interview with Mumbai Mirror last year, Ms Bhatt had opened up about her struggle with alcoholism, adding that she's quit drinking. "I am 45 and if I wanted to give myself 10 years of living, I had to quit now before I drank myself to the grave. I had to reclaim the sharper, brighter me which had got watered down," she told Mumbai Mirror. Talking about her comeback in a separate interview with Mumbai Mirror, Ms Bhatt said: "The joke is that I'm making a comeback as an alcoholic cop after I have decided to quit alcohol."

Pooja Bhatt's comeback will be almost after two decades - she was last seen in 2001's Everybody Says I'm Fine! Earlier last year, Ms Bhatt told news agency PTI that she quit acting as she was averse to the idea of being portrayed as "arm candy." This is what she said: "I didn't do many films because I refused to be an arm candy. When my father retired from direction, I stopped acting too."

Ms Bhatt made her acting debut in 1989's Daddy, directed by her filmmaker father Mahesh Bhatt. She is the eldest of Mr Bhatt's children - actress Alia, Shaheen and Rahul are her younger siblings.

Apart from acting, Pooja Bhatt has also directed and produced films like Paap, Holiday, Jism 2 and Cabaret, which remains her last project.