Throwback Thursday: When Mahesh Bhatt said his mother was ‘worried’ after he gave daughters Alia Bhatt and Shaheen 'Muslim names': 'I could see that there was something...'

Legendary filmmaker, Mahesh Bhatt has always been known speaking his heart out and sharing his progressive thoughts without mincing his words. In one of the old interviews, he shared how he got the best of both worlds from his parents and his mother got worried after he gave Muslim names to daughters Alia Bhatt and Shaheen.

“I had the best of both worlds. My mother was a Shia Muslim, while my father was a janoi-clad man. He never pretended to be secular. What’s very interesting, both (father and mother) retained their individual faiths. They were madly in love but neither indulged in the farce of wanting to do things the other way,” said Bhatt in an old interview as per HT.

The filmmaker recalled during the 1992 communal riots and added, “My mother always wore this big tika, and saree – she liked that kind of thing. But, at the same time, I could see that there was something she was hiding. She felt that her minority status would perhaps interfere with our day-to-day lives. She was a little embarrassed when I flaunted my Muslim roots… when I came to know about it. Yes, she was a little embarrassed about it. She was worried about me during the communal riots in 1992. She was worried when we named my little girls – because my second wife (Soni Razdan) liked those names – Shaheen and Alia. Both are Muslim names. Everybody was worried in 1992. What was going to happen?”

Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter Alia Bhatt, who is a huge Bollywood star, is married to Ranbir Kapoor. The couple is blessed with a daughter named Raha, who was born in November 2022. Alia will be next seen in Jigra followed by Alpha and Love and War.