Demon in a bottle
Pooja Bhatt, actress, filmmaker and daughter of Mahesh Bhatt, is now undertaking an "arduous yet life-affirming journey into my own heart". She is co-authoring a book about her battle with alcohol, which she emphasises, is not an autobiography but could help others like herself deal with their problem. Sober since the past 10 months, Pooja admits that “It hasn't been easy but it hasn't been too difficult either.” It was early this year that Pooja realised the if she didn’t quit now, “I'd have drunk myself to the grave.”

With Pooja there will be no farce or pretence as she confronts her demons head on, with no care of trivialities like ‘image’. The book, co-authored with journalist Roshmila Bhattacharya and published by Penguin India, is guaranteed to sear.

Many Weinsteins in Bollywood
Recently, amidst sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, Pooja took to social media to comment on the Oscar academy's move to hold an emergency meeting after expelling the Hollywood studio executive from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “Many Weinsteins within Bollywood. But would the powers that supposedly govern us ever do what the academy did? Never. Associations LIE here!”

Utterly brutal when it comes to saying things as they exist, she stated that film associations have no unity and do not protect their members, either. “The workers associations take money from daily wage workers to protect them but can't even get errant financiers to honour commitments... If the associations within the industry can't step in when rights are being violated on legalities how will they ever protect us morally?”

Giving female sexuality a chance
“I have introduced a monster now it is up to the industry what it wants to do with it,” she had laughed, regarding giving female sexuality a chance in her films. “I have done it in both versions of Jism. When Bipasha said that this body knows only lust, it broke the convention of a Hindi film heroine who only served the male desire. For once she was asking something for herself and on her own terms. It found a connection with the female audience. It is every different from what Ekta Kapoor has done in Ragini MMS, which is about catering to the male gaze.