Sanjay Dutt refused to kiss Pooja Bhatt in 'Sadak', here's why Mahesh Bhatt called it hypocrisy

Pooja Bhatt began her journey in cinema as an actor under the guidance of her father, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. The father-daughter duo did some memorable work together like 'Sadak', 'Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin' and 'Zakhm'. After making a mark for herself as an actor, Pooja also became a producer. Now she's also a podcast host and in one of the recent episodes on 'The Pooja Bhatt Show', she recalled an instance when she had to do a kissing scene with Sanjay Dutt.

During filming, a particular scene required the lead characters to share a kiss. However, Sanjay was initially uncomfortable with the idea, prompting Mahesh to call him out for what he considered hypocrisy. Pooja recalled a piece of advice her father often shared about shooting intimate scenes. She said, “It’s never the act, it’s the attitude.” She said she felt extremely awkward about filming the kiss with Sanjay at the time. “I had to kiss Sanjay Dutt and I wanted to crawl under the nearest rock,” she said, adding that the actor refused because he had known her since she was a child. “He said, ‘I am not going to kiss her, I have seen her as a child’.”




The director overheard the remark and responded bluntly. Recalling the moment, Pooja said, “So my father said, ‘That’s complete hypocrisy. If you can’t kiss her, then you have no business kissing anybody else’s daughter’.”

After directing 'Kartoos', Mahesh stepped away from filmmaking and moved into an advisory role at Vishesh Films. He returned to direction nearly after two decades with 'Sadak 2' and reunited with Pooja. But this film was also special as it marked his first and only collaboration with daughter Alia Bhatt. The film also starred Sanjay and Aditya Roy Kapur.

On work front for Pooja, the actress was last seen in R Balki's 'Chup: Revenge of the Artist' followed by 'Big Girls Don't Cry' on OTT. Get the latest entertainment updates from the Times of India, along with the latest Hindi movies, upcoming Hindi movies in 2026 , and Telugu movies.”