Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, known for his unfiltered honesty, recently left audiences shocked with a startling confession. During a conversation on daughter Pooja Bhatt’s podcast, he recalled a time in his early 20s when he allegedly followed a tantric’s instructions and fed human flesh to a potential investor.
When Mahesh Bhatt followed tantric advice
Bhatt explained that he and his friend Arun Desai were struggling to establish their careers. Arun suggested visiting an investor in Bihar’s Gaya, but first, they had to consult his guru in Varanasi. “There was a queue of very poor people waiting to have an audience with that guruji. He was a tantrik, a young man who held a bottle of rum in his hand and would keep on dancing," Bhatt said. The tantric, sensing Bhatt’s skepticism, asked them to return the next day.
Recalling the unsettling instructions, Bhatt said, “He pulled out a piece and he made a pudiya out of it, and he said this is human flesh, which has been taken out from the ghats. He said, ‘Take this and feed it to your potential investor, and he will give you money.’" For Bhatt, it seemed like he had discovered the “key to this kingdom of money.”
The duo then traveled to Gaya, where the investor lived. Bhatt remembered, “Somewhere in the outskirts of Gaya, there was this zamindar, who used to sit behind this mosquito net and had security men holding guns." Faced with the challenge of feeding the investor human flesh, they disguised it in a paan. “And slowly, he brought it close to his mouth and then, he started chewing it. We felt that we have hit the bull’s eye," Bhatt recalled. He believed the act would resolve their financial struggles and boost his career. However, a month later, he learned from Arun Desai that the investor had not given them any money.
Netizens react to Mahesh Bhatt's story
Bhatt’s story has caused a storm on social media, with Reddit users voicing shock and disbelief. One user wrote that when a body is cremated, it is supposed to be guarded because of purposes like this, expressing surprise that Bhatt was making it public. Another described him as “such a creep” and said it sounded believable that he could fall to such a level. Several others questioned the origin of the flesh, with one asking, “Where did the tantric even get the flesh from?” and another asking, “Um, whose flesh did he use?” Some commented that Bhatt clearly needed therapy, while others worried about the impact on his daughter Alia’s public image, noting that “Papa is trying to ruin everything that Alia is trying to build” and “He’s ruining Alia’s image.” Another Redditor reflected on the secrecy, stating, “This is one of those secrets one should take with them to the grave,” while yet another labeled the Bhatt family as weird and said Bhatt appeared to be an attention seeker, always testing boundaries. One user summed up their disgust simply by saying, “Let me just go and puke.”