Paul McCartney and the Beatles' association with India runs long and deep. But while most would be aware of their time in Rishikesh and their fascination with classical Indian musical instruments, few would know that McCartney also watched and enjoyed Vikram Bhatt's 2002 romantic horror film Raaz, and left impressed with Nadeem-Shravan's music and Bipasha Basu's performance. In fact, producer Mahesh Bhatt said in a new interview, he even made the effort to call Bipasha, and compared her to Sophia Loren. Bhatt was the first guest on his daughter Pooja's new podcast, where they spoke about his encounter with McCartney. Pooja said that she wasn't speaking to him because of an argument they'd had, and he tried to 'bribe' her by asking her to accompany him to meet McCartney, who was visiting India in 2002. "I wanted to meet him because I wanted to tell myself and tell the world that I met Paul McCartney. I used to make my hair like him, and I used to sing his songs to your mother. He came with his girlfriend Heather," Bhatt said. Also read: Mahesh Bhatt’s first wife lived in an orphanage, gave him ‘permission’ to marry woman he cheated on her with: ‘Wrote love letters in blood’ The filmmaker said that he asked the legendary pop star 'two questions', one of which left him stumped. "I asked him, 'Do you dream of John (Lennon)?' And he said, 'Yes, I dream of John. He's too powerful a person not to dream about.' And then he started talking about how the music would flow through him, and how it would come from 'up there' from 'some mysterious power'. So, I said, 'If that were the case, Paul, why did you copyright your music? You want stardom and divinity'." He said that McCartney didn't know how to respond to that. But the Beatle agreed to attend a special screening of Raaz, where Dino Morea was given the duty to translate what was happening on screen to him. But McCartney, according to Bhatt, was vibing on Nadeem-Shravan's music. He said, "I remember showing Raaz at Dimple Theatre. Very generous guy; he was singing the tune of 'Aap Ke Pyaar Mein Hum'. When it was time for him to leave for his flight, he reluctantly got up. He was still looking at the screen. I thought, 'Yeh picture hit hai', because if you can make Paul McCartney turn around and look at the screen." Bhatt said that McCartney was so impressed that he wanted to congratulate Bipasha, who wasn't there. He called her up and said that she reminded him of the Italian superstar Sophia Loren. Not just McCartney, the Oscar-winning director Jane Campion, who last directed the widely acclaimed film The Power of the Dog, watched a portion of Jism when she was visiting India. "She said this movie is going to be a hit," Pooja recalled, adding that Campion compared John Abraham to Robert Mitchum.
