Pooja Bhatt who is known for movies like ‘Zakhm’, ‘Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahi’, ‘Sadak’ and many ore has recently revisited a moment that fundamentally shifted her understanding of the craft and commerce of cinema. The actress has now turned podcast host and in a recent interview, she recalled how once Mithun Chakraborty got angry on her. In a conversation with actor Avtar Gill on her podcast, The Pooja Bhatt Show, she recounted a lesson she learned early on during an overseas schedule, one that revealed the unforgiving economics of filmmaking, a reality she feels the digital generation doesn’t always appreciate.
When Mithun Chakraborty Called Her Out in Public. The memory goes back to the shoot of Naaraaz in Malaysia. The team was filming on a crowded street, and tensions were already high. Mahesh Bhatt, uneasy with the gathering crowd, wanted to wrap the shot after a couple of takes. But Pooja hesitated, convinced that her performance needed another go.She recalled Mithun Chakraborty turning to her, asking why she wasn’t ready to move on. When she admitted she wanted another retake, what followed stunned her. Pooja said, “I said, ‘No Mithun da, it was not a good shot’. In the middle of the road, he just said, ‘Eh, Aamir Khan ka bhoot tumhare andar se nikalo, kya stock ghar se laa rahi ho?’”The blunt reprimand rattled her, but it also exposed her to something she hadn’t fully understood until then, the high cost of film stock and why actors of that era were discouraged from demanding retakes.
Why Retakes Were a Big Deal Before Digital Filmmaking
Before the industry embraced digital cameras, films were shot on raw stock — a pricey, limited resource. Every extra take consumed more material, directly impacting the budget. Actors had to perfect their scenes in rehearsal, not in front of the rolling camera, and directors often avoided additional takes unless absolutely necessary. For Pooja, this moment became a crash course in the financial limitations that shaped filmmaking practices back then.After her appearance in the 2024 English-language coming-of-age series Big Girls Don’t Cry, created by Nitya Mehra and featuring an ensemble cast including Mukul Chadda, Raima Sen, Zoya Hussain, Avantika, Tenzin Lhakyila, Aneet Padda, Dalai, Vidushi, and Afrah Sayed, Pooja’s creative journey continues to evolve.She is now preparing for her next feature film, in which she plays the mother of Panchayat star Jitendra Kumar. The film is said to explore India’s pigeon-flying culture — a fascinating, little-seen world that mainstream cinema has rarely ventured into.
