- Pooja Bhatt played a single mom in Zakhm, and Kunal Kemmu essayed the role of her young son.
- Ajay Devgn played the role of her grown-up son in the film that also featured Nagarjuna and Sonali Bendre.
- She was terrified to take upon the responsibility of portraying a character based on her real-life grandmother.
In Mahesh Bhatt’s semi-autobiographical film Zakhm, Pooja Bhatt has admitted that she was afraid to take on the challenge of playing a role based on her real-life grandmother.
In Zakhm, Pooja Bhatt portrayed a single mother, and Kunal Kemmu played her little kid. Her adult son was portrayed by Ajay Devgn in the movie, which also starred Nagarjuna and Sonali Bendre.
“Frankly, I was afraid to take on the burden of impersonating my grandma and tried my hardest to suggest to my father we cast another actress in my place, but my father gave me no choice,” Pooja said in an interview with ETimes. I’m not asking you, Pooja, he said. You are playing this part, I’m telling you. The conversation ended there. What follows is history. I had the honor of portraying my grandma, and the saree I was wearing in the song belonged to her.
“I will always be grateful to my father for that,” she continued. My grandma Shirin also owned the “mangalsutra” I wore in the movie. And our house’s set was an exact reproduction of the home my father grew up in as a boy. Those days and that space I shared with Kunal (Kemmu) in front of the camera are some of the most magical times of my life!”
Zakhm was praised by critics for promoting national integrity since it showed the division that religion-based politics causes in society and the possibility of inter-citizen unity.
Pooja mentioned her Muslim grandma a few years ago when she recalled how she used to take Pooja as a young child every Tuesday to the Siddhivinayak temple in Bombay. “On December 15, 1998, our movie #zakhm was censored. Shirin Nanabhai Bhatt, a Muslim woman who took me to the Siddhivinayak temple every Tuesday and to church every Wednesday and Friday, got the honor of playing my grandma in a movie. In 2019, she tweeted, “It is the true essence of India.
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