Ranvir Shorey and Pooja Bhatt‘s relationship and subsequent fallout have remained a subject of discussion for years. Now, Pooja’s younger brother Rahul Bhatt has revisited an incident involving Ranvir Shorey from nearly two decades ago, revealing that he once assaulted the actor while stepping in during an altercation between Ranvir and Pooja. Rahul also admitted that he regrets taking matters into his own hands and praised Ranvir for the way he eventually handled the situation.Rahul recalled the incident and said in an interview with Siddharth Kannan, “There was an altercation between Ranvir Shorey and Pooja Bhatt. They had an argument, after which Ranvir hit her or something like that. I had to step in and, when I did, my response was a bit exaggerated. I broke his car’s glass. I broke one of his ribs. I did a wrong thing by taking the law into my own hands. Subsequently, I paid the price for it. I was arrested. Charged.”Rahul went on to admit that he regretted his actions. He said, “I regret it. I shouldn’t have overreacted. Back in those days, I said I would do it again. But in the case of Ranvir Shorey, I shouldn’t have. He was very decent. During the compounding of the offence, he came forward and said, ‘Let bygones be bygones.'”Praising Ranvir for not holding on to the incident, Rahul added, “Nobody does something like that. People usually use such situations to extract money, but he didn’t. He came and compounded the case, and the FIR was quashed. Until then, I had a criminal case pending. He was very decent in that. I respect him for that. Nobody else would have done it without holding a grudge,” concluded Rahul Bhatt.The revelation comes amid renewed discussion around Ranvir’s tumultuous relationship with Pooja and the allegations that followed their breakup. Ranvir and Pooja, who were friends before entering a relationship, had a highly publicised split in the early 2000s. Pooja had previously alleged that Ranvir was physically and verbally abusive, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol. Ranvir has denied the allegations.The actor had also spoken about the fallout with the Bhatt family during his stint on Bigg Boss OTT 3, where he emerged as the second runner-up. Recalling that phase of his life, Ranvir had said, “During the same time, I also encountered the biggest scandal of my life with another actress. As I was unable to cope, my brother asked me to come to the US with him for a while. I pursued a six-month acting course in the US and borrowed money from my brother. After returning from the US, I started shooting for The Great Indian Comedy Show in 2005. At that time, two of my long-shelved films were greenlit for release and hit theatres back-to-back within a week, and my work was loved by audiences. After those films, I finally felt my life was steady as an actor and that I had arrived.”Ranvir later discussed the dispute in an interview with Siddharth Kannan, claiming that he felt his equation with Mahesh Bhatt had been used against him. He said, “At the time we had a conflict, I felt that the respect I had for him, he used that manipulatively. When the fight happened, he told my father, ‘OK, we will rest the matter here, whatever the fight happened between the kids.’ The next day, he proceeded to print utter lies about me and planted false stories in the media against me, painting me as an alcoholic, abusive person. All lies.”When asked whether the dispute was only between him and Pooja, Ranvir said, “Her brother was the one who assaulted me. He (Mahesh Bhatt) could have told these guys not to talk like that. In that sense, I felt he was manipulative towards me. These are all 25-year-old stories. I don’t want to get into them now.”Ranvir and Pooja dated in the early 2000s and lived together before their relationship ended in a much-publicised breakup around 2002. Ranvir later married actress Konkona Sen Sharma. The couple welcomed their son Haroon in 2011 and separated in 2015. Pooja, meanwhile, married Manish Makhija in 2003, though the two later parted ways.
