An old video from the early 2000s featuring filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt with the late actress Jiah Khan, who was then 16, has gone viral over the past few days.
The video, said to be from 2004, has Jiah cosying up to Bhatt and sharing a laugh.
Jiah made her Bollywood debut in Ram Gopal Varma's "Nishabd", starring Amitabh Bachchan, in 2007, although unconfirmed reports have stated that she was originally supposed to be cast in the 2004 release "Tumsa Nahin Dekha", starring Emraan Hashmi and produced by Mahesh's brother Mukesh Bhatt.
The video, available on the Instagram page of Bollymedialove, has started doing the rounds even as Mahesh Bhatt is being heavily trolled for his links with actress Rhea Chakraborty, who was the girlfriend of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Bhatt has also been facing social media ire over allegations that he has been promoting nepotism in Bollywood.
Rhea has been facing public and media heat ever since, shortly after Sushant's death, his family filed an FIR charging Rhea and her family, among others, with abetment to suicide among other charges.
On the other hand, the conversation on Bollywood nepotism and favouritism has started all over again in the aftermath of actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death on June 14, and Mahesh Bhatt has been heavily trolled in all these months.
Bhatt's upcoming film "Sadak 2", starring his daughters Alia and Pooja Bhatt along with Sanjay Dutt and Aditya Roy Kapur, is being seen as a prime example of Bollywood nepotism by a vast number of netizens, and the film has been trolled ever since its first look was launched. In fact the trailer of the film is one of the top three most dislike videos in the world, and a hashtag demanding the boycott of "Sadak 2" has been trending over the past few weeks. The film is scheduled to release on an OTT platform on August 28.
Jiah Khan was found dead under suspicious circumstances on June 3 2013, following which a case was filed against actor Sooraj Pancholi. Jiah's mother Rabia Khan has alleged Sooraj and his father, actor Aditya Pancholi, used their clout to hush up the case.