Inside Pooja Bhatt’s New Podcast: On Life, Love, and Recovery

Actor and director Pooja Bhatt is reclaiming the mic — and the narrative — with The Pooja Bhatt Show, iHeartMedia’s first Indian podcast under its new multi-language Asian slate, created with Mammoth Media Asia. Launching in late September, the weekly audio-only series is a raw, unfiltered journey through Bhatt’s life and mind: love and loss, addiction and healing, fame and failure. The idea first took root in 1998 — a story she teases but saves for the show.

Having once hosted a radio show with her father, Bhatt returns to the freedom of the spoken word, choosing authenticity over curation in a digital age of overexposure. At a time when most podcasts are eager to hit record on video, she insists on keeping the camera off. Because for her, it’s about listening — not watching. Feeling — not performing. And to tell the truth, long after the spotlight fades.

Edited excerpts from a conversation: 

THR India: Tell us about how the proposition for this podcast came about and when did the conversations start. 

Pooja Bhatt: It began in a speakeasy bar and lounge called 'Pravda' with Russian Inspired fare on Lafayette Street in New York City back in 1998. But that's a fascinating story you will have to tune in to the podcast to get more details of.  

THR India: Why do you want to revisit your life right now? What motivated you? 

PB: We live life forward but understand it backwards. This is not only an opportunity to attempt to understand and examine my life, but to pay homage and express gratitude to the ones that helped shape my understanding of myself and the world we inhabit. 

THR India: So many people in the entertainment space are doing podcasts now. Why did you choose this medium too and how do you think your show will stand out in the crowd? 

PB: I was drawn to the fact that iHeart is providing me an opportunity to remain true to the podcast format by sticking to audio and not pushing to have a camera roll like majority of podcasts do today, especially in India.  

I have hosted a radio show with my father called Bhatt Naturally in the past and found the medium of radio liberating. In times where people look yet don't see... hear but don't quite listen, the emphasis will be on the spoken word and truths that resonate after the cameras are switched off. 

THR India: What parts of your life do you want to explore, and which ones do you not want to? 

PB: I have lived my life as an open book. Never shirked uncomfortable conversations nor questions. Be it work, love, addiction, recovery, aging, mental health, failures, injustice and social inequality, I have never flinched when it came to addressing these topics openly and with my heart. This podcast will be an extension of that.  

THR India: How are you looking at this stage of your career? What is driving your creative choices? 

PB: Heart drives me. I choose to work with people that move and inspire me as a human being first. Commercials and artistic capabilities come second.  

THR India: A lot of times, people in the limelight lose control over their narratives. Do you think this has changed in the age of social media? 

PB: Social media is a carefully curated pack of lies for most. Most people can see beyond those lies. Yet some choose to buy into those lies. It's eventually a tool of communication and should not be treated as the bedrock of human existence.  

THR India: ⁠Are there any specific preparations you had to take before getting into this podcast? If so, what kinds and who helped with you them? 

PB: Living life unashamedly and unabashedly has been my greatest preparation. There is no alternative to a lived life.