Pooja said the episode prompted an unforgettable response from her grandmother, Betty Bertha Bright.

“My grandmother was called, and she said, ‘Listen, I just put my youngest child in boarding school. If you are old enough to jump the wall, you are old enough to look after her.’”

Pooja recalled that her mother was subsequently expelled from the orphanage, after which Mahesh Bhatt stepped in to support her.

“She was thrown out of school because of this, and my dad took it as his responsibility. He took her to the YWCA and forged a letter saying she was a working girl so that she could stay there. She got a job at Grover’s Vineyard. She knew only two bus routes—one to work and one back home.”

Pooja added, “He looked after her when she was very young. He is 77 now, she is 74. Aashiqui is based on this. I could actually be playing my mother’s role.” She also revealed that despite Mahesh and brother Mukesh Bhatt offering her the role, she had refused Aashiqui because her boyfriend at the time didn’t approve of her working in films.

ALSO READ: Pooja Bhatt’s grandmom held funeral for her amputated leg: ‘What are we doing here?’

(Photo: Express Archive)

When Mahesh Bhatt revisited the love story

Pooja’s recollection closely mirrors what Mahesh Bhatt had shared during an emotional conversation with her on Pooja Bhatt’s podcast last year.

Recalling the beginning of their romance, the filmmaker said, “I was 16, she was 14. She was living in an orphanage, because her mother did not have the means to keep her as a day scholar. One day, I saw this gorgeous girl standing with her friends at the gate of Bombay Scottish. There was something about her that drew me to her. But somehow, love was preceded by the feeling of unworthiness.”

Gathering courage after a few days, he finally approached her. “I remember I offered her Milan Supari.”

Mahesh revealed that because they couldn’t meet freely, he persuaded a tailor who stitched school uniforms to secretly deliver his letters.

“Struck by her charm and beauty, I begged him to carry my letter to her. He expressed the hazards of doing that because if he was caught, he would lose his job. But he was a generous man, so he took my letter and I waited for her reply. And then she did! I wrote to her in blood and she also replied in blood.”

The couple eventually arranged to meet inside an empty classroom after Lorraine bribed the watchman to leave the school unlocked.

“She asked to see my face because it was getting dark. I lit a matchstick until it went out. She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my life.”

Mahesh Bhatt and Pooja Bhatt (Express Archive)

The relationship, however, was soon discovered.

“All hell broke loose, and the tailor lost his job, and Lorraine was thrown out of school.”

Mahesh said Lorraine’s mother was understandably furious, but he assured her that he would take care of her daughter. He forged his father’s signature to arrange accommodation for Lorraine at the YWCA, where she later trained as a receptionist and telephone operator.

‘My fairytale romance was reduced to ashes’

Years later, Mahesh’s relationship with actor Parveen Babi changed everything.

Looking back, he admitted, “I really believed in fairytale love, but then I fell into a relationship with Parveen Babi.”

He recalled the moment he confessed the affair to Lorraine while their daughter Pooja was asleep.

“I looked at myself in the mirror and thought, ‘All your life you hated your father for keeping your mother as the other woman. What have you done?’”

Looking back at that phase, Bhatt had said, “My fairytale romance was reduced to ashes.”

After his relationship with Parveen ended, Mahesh fell in love with actor Soni Razdan and decided to remarry. Before telling Lorraine, however, he first spoke to Pooja.

Recalling the conversation, Pooja had said, “I saw you sitting at the edge of my bed and telling me about the woman that you have met, Soni, and the fact that you’re going to be marrying her and move out. I was just privileged to be treated as an equal because you told me this before you even told my mother.”

Mahesh Bhatt and Soni Razdan. (Photo: Express Archive)

Bhatt had become emotional while remembering that moment.

“You remember when I told you that I would not be living here and please don’t mistake this as my rejection of you. There is another woman in my life, but I love you. And I will always take care of your mother and this house. I can’t thank you enough for that expression because you looked at me, and I thought you didn’t judge me.”

Lorraine blessed Mahesh’s marriage to Soni Razdan

Despite their separation, Mahesh and Lorraine continued to share mutual respect.

During the same podcast, Pooja had recalled how, when people questioned the legitimacy of Mahesh’s marriage to Soni Razdan, it was her mother who defended him.

“When they questioned the legitimacy of your marriage, and they said, ‘Who gave permission?’ I’ll never forget, my mother got up and said, ‘Who gave permission? I gave permission. He has my blessing.’”

Mahesh has often said that despite their separation, he never stopped caring for Lorraine. In fact, the very first phone call he made after the birth of his daughter Shaheen with Soni Razdan was to Lorraine.

Praising her father, Pooja had said, “I’ve met very few men who, once they hold a woman’s hand, they never let go. The nature of the love might change, but the love doesn’t go away. Today, you are more like a parent. She knows that, no matter what, she can rely on you. You have never made her feel that you are stretching yourself by providing… When you said to my grandmother that you will look after her, you still look after her.”

Mahesh Bhatt and Kiran Bhatt are parents to Pooja and Rahul Bhatt, while he and Soni Razdan have two daughters, Alia and Shaheen Bhatt.