Mahesh Bhatt

Mahesh Bhatt was born on 20 September 1949 in Bombay, Maharashtra, India. He is an Indian film director, and is the father of film actress Pooja Bhatt. He has been a knowing self-publicist, highlighting personal narratives of illegitimate birth and extra-marital romance to factor into the public reception of films such as Arth (1982), Janam (1985) and Naam (1986). He began his career as an assistant to Hindi director Raj Khosla.

Bhatt's films show an unusual engagement with the psychological damage arising from infringement of social norms, situations which are characteristic deep mental/emotion damage and trauma (recommended only for the turmoiled/masochistic mind). These films provided challenges of characterization to their actors, who included both parallel and mainstream stars. The stand-out film of his earlier period is Saaransh (1984), an exploration of an old couple's anxieties in a universe governed by arbitrary violence. His last film, Zakhm (1998), was returned to the censor board because of right-wing pressure critical of its references to the Mumbai riots of 1993. He is the author of U.G. Krishnamurti: A Life.