"I would've encounters with vicious men": Mahesh Bhatt recalls being called an 'illegitimate child'

Mahesh Bhatt is a man who refused to conform to the norms set by the society and lived life totally on his own terms. He was born to a mother who was a Shia Muslim and a Hindu father. He revealed that it was the post-Independence era and his mother had to wear a saree and put teeka to pass off as a Hindu.

Mahesh Bhatt revealed that he often used to get picked up by bullies for being an illegitimate child. He added that he was called an illegitimate child and their home an illegitimate house. They used to only get leftovers to eat and surviving was quite tough. Talking about his father, Bhatt said that whenever he used to visit, he used to feel like an outsider had come.

Mahesh's childhood

"I was born in 1948, it was post-independent India and my mother was a Shia Muslim, but we lived in Shivaji Park where majority of the people were Hindus and she concealed her identity and wore a saree, adorned a tika," he told Arbaaz Khan in an interview.

Quitting alcohol

"When he came to our house, I felt as if an outsider has come. I would have encounters with vicious men who would put in a corner and ask me about my father," he went on to add. The Aashiqui director went on to add that after it was the birth of their daughter, Shaheen that he completely stopped drinking overnight.

Bhatt said that he felt that when he bowed down to kiss Shaheen when she was a newborn, he felt she turned her face in the other direction due to the stench of the alcohol. The maverick filmmaker revealed that it has been 36 years that he hasn't touched alcohol ever since.