If Pooja weren't my daughter, I'd love to marry her: The strange equation between Pooja and Mahesh Bhatt (Throwback)

If Mahesh Bhatt was the King of controversies, daughter Pooja Bhatt can easily be called the Queen of such controversial soups. Both of them have been through their fare share of hiccups, successes and failures but what brought them under tremendous spotlight was the equation they had with each other. And it was at the time when the two appeared on the cover of a magazine that things went completely haywire.

Mahesh Bhatt and Pooja Bhatt decided to go all bond in the picture and kissed each other on lips. To add to it, the headline of the magazine read, "If Pooja weren't my daughter, I'd love to marry her." This caused nationwide shock and the duo were called out for apparently not being in a father-daughter relationship. Pooja's references to Mahesh Bhatt many a times as Bhatt Saab and not as dad or daddy, added fuel to the fire. However the two never spoke about it.

After parting ways with his first wife, Pooja's mother, Lorraine, Mahesh Bhatt tied-the-knot for the second time with Soni Razdan. Soni is Alia Bhatt's mother. Talking about how she accepted Soni into her life, Pooja Bhatt had told Stardust, "Initially, I did resent my dad for leaving my mother for another woman. I also used to hate Soni for snatching away dad from us. In fact there used to be times when I would flare up at the very mention of her name. It was my mother who made me understand and think practically. She would tell me not to resent or hate my father for anything for basically he is a good man at heart."

Pooja had also revealed in the same interview that once Mahesh Bhatt had woken her up while she was sleeping and told her that he was seeing someone else and was having an affair. She added that she was the first one to know even before her father had told it to her mother and that's the kind of honest his father is towards her.

She further added that earlier she used to consider Soni as her enemy but later started exchanging glances which soon transformed to hi and hello. She added that time heals everything and they became friends after a while. She also added that her mother also started talking to Soni after a few years.