Mahesh Bhatt recalls passing out on the road, realising he was an ‘alcoholic’: ‘My face was on the concrete’

Mahesh Bhatt recalled that he once passed out on the footpath, and woke up the next morning with his face on the pavement, only to realise that his wallet had been stolen.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | March 11, 2023 05:17 PM IST

2 min read

Mahesh Bhatt said that he has been sober for 36 years. (Photo: Express Archives)

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Mahesh Bhatt has been open about his problems with alcoholism in the past, and in a recent chat with Arbaaz Khan on the chat show The Invincibles, Bhatt spoke about the moment he realised he had turned into an alcoholic. The Naam director shared that he once woke up on the footpath and realised that he must have passed out drunk the previous night, when he was out for a party.

“One day, I woke up and found myself sleeping on the footpath of Juhu Vile Parle Scheme. I remember my face was on the concrete and dawn was just breaking. I realised I had gone for some party and I had fallen down on the road and slept there and someone had taken away my purse also. Because when there is a drunk lying on the road, you take his purse away,” he recalled.

Bhatt said that he walked up to his house and told his wife Soni Razdan about what had transpired the night before. “She said, ‘What happened to you? I said, ‘I don’t know, I have become an alcoholic. And she was very alarmed at the idea of me having spent the night on the road,” he said.

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Bhatt shared that after this incident, a “miracle” happened when his first daughter with Soni, Shaheen Bhatt, was born. The Arth director recalled that when he came to the hospital, they gave him the baby to hold and when he tried to kiss her, he felt as if the baby moved her face away. He felt that “she couldn’t bear the stench, the fumes of alcohol.” Bhatt acknowledged that this might have been something that he “hallucinated.” “That did it. I said I can’t deal with this rejection. Since that day and now, I have not touched a drop of alcohol. 36 years, not one drop,” he concluded.

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