Actress Alia Bhatt says her father and veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt is quite competitive in many ways – even when it comes to boyfriend matters.
Asked Alia if he was a possessive dad, she said: “He is territorial! If I’ve gotten someone a present, he’s like, ‘Where’s mine? How much have you spent on that? How much have you spent on mine?’
“If my sister’s boyfriend gets her something, he’d say, ‘I can get you two, I can get you three!” He’s competitive, he’s always been competitive!”
Talking about being liberal about his daughter’s relationships, Mahesh said: “You must not forget that I had Pooja as my first child, girl child and she really out-distanced everyone!
“She (Alia) came 20 years later, by then the world had changed, India had changed, the environment had changed.
“And if I could be as easy with Pooja and in fact, I had to earn the wrath of my near and dear ones that I was being a little too liberal. I said, ‘Who the hell gives me the authority to dish out some value systems which I myself have violated!”.
Mahesh added that he would be jealous if Alia – who is rumoured to be dating actor Sidharth Malhotra – ever got a man who reminded him of his younger self.
“I would be very jealous to be unseated from her heart as the most important male, and ain’t I happy that I am occupying this privileged position as her best friend!
“So, all the men out there should know who is very special for her. So I would say that I would hate to lose that little space that I think I’m privileged to have… I would hate to be displaced,” he said.
