Pooja Bhatt says family was rushed to a safe house after Mahesh Bhatt flushed Osho’s mala

4 min readMumbaiJul 7, 2026 04:11 PM IST

Back in the 1970s, veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt became a follower of godman Rajneesh aka Osho as he frequented his Pune ashram. But soon enough, he quit the cult, leading to a bitter fallout with Osho, before finding a spiritual companion in “anti-guru” UG Krishnamurti. Mahesh’s eldest daughter Pooja Bhatt vividly remembers the turbulent time when her father walked away from Osho.

Pooja Bhatt recalls visiting Osho ashram

“My father was part of the Rajneesh cult. He pulled his mala off his neck and flushed down the toilet,” recalled Pooja. “And then he was banned. He was the outlaw. I remember a message coming to my mother through Vinod Khanna, ‘Bhagwan is very angry. Bhagwan is going to destroy Mahesh.’ When I was a child, we were taken to a safehouse in Pune in the middle of the night,” she added.

Pooja then described Osho as a “jilted lover”. “He didn’t like people walking away from him. The same with Ma Sheela. The threat at the end of the day is, ‘Why can’t you keep me on the pedestal?’ Whether you’re a godman or a politician, you want to be worshipped,” Pooja said on the Cyrus Says podcast. Ma Anand Sheela was a longtime loyal secretary of Osho.

“I’ve been to the Osho ashram. I’ve touched Osho’s feet as a child. They would sniff you because Bhagwan wouldn’t like any fragrance because his aura would be pervaded. You couldn’t use perfume or shampoo,” revealed Pooja. The Osho ashram is located in the plush area of Koregaon Street in Pune.

Vinod Khanna once took a five-year hiatus from Bollywood to follow his spiritual guru Osho Rajneesh. (Express archive photo)

Mahesh Bhatt’s fallout with Osho

A couple of years ago, Mahesh Bhatt recalled how he became an Osho follower in the first place. After his films — Manzilien Aur Bhi Hain (1974), starring Kabir Bedi, and Vishwasghaat (1977), starring Sanjeev Kumar — flopped at the box office, Mahesh admitted he entered the “spiritual supermarket”. “I went to Osho Rajneesh, who was a charismatic guru from Pune. I went to him and devoted myself to him… ochre robes and meditation five times a day,” Mahesh said on Arbaaz Khan’s chat show.

Revealing why he flushed the mala down the toilet, Mahesh confessed, “I thought that I still feel envious but I am saying holy words… I feel like a hypocrite. I can’t lie to the world and myself.” “This is worthless; I am a damn fool,” he recalled telling longtime collaborator and veteran actor Vinod Khanna, whom he introduced to Osho as well.

Mahesh had directed Vinod Khanna in films like Lahu Ke Do Rang (1979). “When I turned away, he stayed — and then disappeared to Oregon. I even flew to America once, to try and bring him back. But he was too far gone,” recalled Mahesh. Khanna quit films at the peak of his career in the early 1980s, and relocated to the ashram in Oregaon, only to return years later.

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“When the Rajneesh dream collapsed, he returned — broken,” recounted Mahesh. He then went on to direct Khanna in films like Jurm (1990) and Maarg (1992). Khanna, who became Osho’s messenger to Mahesh after their fallout, asked the actor to convey to Mahesh that he should bring back his mala to the godman otherwise he’d “destroy” him.

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“Rajneesh ashram collapsed after some time and Rajneesh was handcuffed and jailed. The Osho show was over. Vinod returned but he couldn’t get the momentum he had in Bollywood. Things had changed in the industry,” recalled Mahesh in an interview with SpotboyE in 2017. Osho was arrested for immigration fraud in the US in the mid-1980s.