'Main Vaapas Aaunga is an act of rebellion,' says Mahesh Bhatt, compares it to Arth and Zakhm

Mahesh Bhatt has staked out bold creative ground for his new film Main Vaapas Aaunga, calling it 'an act of rebellion' and placing it in the same lineage as Arth and Zakhm — the two films widely regarded as the most brutally honest of his career.

Bhatt made these remarks in an interview, framing the project not as a commercial venture but as a deeply personal statement. His comparison to Arth, the 1982 film that drew from his own tumultuous personal life, and Zakhm, the 1997 film rooted in his experience of religious identity and his mother's death, suggests Main Vaapas Aaunga will carry a similarly autobiographical or emotionally unguarded quality.

The filmmaker, who has not directed a film in decades, has been associated with the project in a capacity that underlines his renewed creative engagement. The word 'rebellion' is pointed: it implies a conscious pushback against the dominant trends of mainstream Bollywood — spectacle, franchise films, and algorithm-driven content.

For audiences who grew up on Bhatt's 1980s and 1990s output, the comparison carries real weight. Arth and Zakhm were films that made viewers uncomfortable in the best possible way, refusing easy resolution. Whether Main Vaapas Aaunga can recapture that spirit remains to be seen, but Bhatt's framing of the film has already made it one of the more anticipated artistic conversations in Hindi cinema.