Mahesh and Pooja's infamous kiss didn't bother family

In the early 90s, when actor Pooja Bhatt was establishing herself as a leading heroine in Bollywood, a controversy almost threatened to derail her career. Pooja and her father, director-producer Mahesh Bhatt, appeared in a film magazine, giving each other a kiss on the mouth. Now, Pooja's brother Rahul Bhatt has spoken about the controversy that refuses to go away.

In an interview with Hindi Rush, Rahul, a fitness trainer, said that the family was never bothered by the backlash to the picture. "Kuch faraqnahipadtahai (It doesn't bother us).

It's like water off a duck's back. Humko maloom haisach kyahai… humnebachpan se dekhahaiyaar" (We know the truth… we've seen it since childhood)," Rahul said.

He added that being born and brought up in the industry makes children from film families largely immune to such controversies, which is the case with him and his sister.

Rahul said, "Film parivarke bache yatoh bahut messed up hotahaiya bahut mazboot. Logon ko lagtahaihumeinfarqpadtahai, magarnahi. (Kids from film families are either really messed up or really strong. People think we care, but we don't)."

This is not the first time that the Bhatt family have addressed the infamous kiss. In 2023, in an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Pooja Bhatt had called the moment 'innocent' and slammed those making a controversy out of it for years. "Agar log baap aur betikerishte ko alagnazariye se dekhsakte haitohwoh kuch bhi karsaktehai. Phir hum baatkartehain family values ki. Bahut kamal ka joke hai (If people can look at a father-daughter relationship from a twisted lens, they're capable of anything. Then we talk about family values. What an incredible joke that is)," she said.