Actor Ranvir Shorey responds to Rahul Bhatt’s admission of assaulting him over 20 years ago during a dispute involving Pooja Bhatt, stating that prolonged slander and malicious propaganda have finally given way to the truth regarding the past altercation.
More than two decades after their widely publicized feud, actor Ranvir Shorey has publicly addressed fitness trainer Rahul Bhatt’s recent confession regarding a violent altercation that took place in the early 2000s. Reacting to Bhatt’s remarks, Shorey expressed relief that long-standing narratives and public slander surrounding his past relationship with filmmaker-actor Pooja Bhatt are finally being dismantled by verified facts.
The development unfolded after Rahul Bhatt appeared on a podcast hosted by media personality Siddharth Kannan, where he openly admitted to physically assaulting Shorey years ago. Bhatt recalled intervening during a volatile argument between Shorey and his sister, Pooja Bhatt. During the candid interview, Rahul stated that he stepped into the dispute, struck the actor, and damaged the windshield of Shorey’s vehicle. He further expressed remorse over his actions, admitting he regrets resorting to violence while commending Shorey for handling the aftermath with restraint and maturity over the years.
Taking to his official X account on Wednesday, Shorey addressed the revelation directly, emphasizing how decades of targeted hostility had warped public perception of what actually occurred that night. Shorey stated that he was glad over twenty years of malicious propaganda and slander had finally yielded to genuine truth. Adding what he termed the critical missing detail, Shorey emphasized that defending oneself against physical violence in order to escape a toxic environment cannot be equated with initiating an assault.
The conflict traces back to the early 2000s, when Ranvir Shorey and Pooja Bhatt were in a high-profile romantic relationship after growing close during the making of the erotic thriller Jism. The couple moved in together, but the domestic arrangement deteriorated rapidly, culminating in a bitter, highly publicized breakup in 2002. In the years following the separation, both parties gave sharply conflicting accounts to the press.
At the time of the fallout, Shorey repeatedly alleged that members of the Bhatt family systematically framed him in the media as an aggressive, alcoholic partner to deflect scrutiny from the domestic discord. Shorey had maintained that he was the victim of physical assault by Rahul Bhatt following an argument with Pooja, an assertion that was widely contested and downplayed in industry circles for years.
Following their split, both individuals moved on with their personal lives. Pooja Bhatt married VJ-turned-restaurateur Manish Makhija in 2003, before announcing their separation in 2014. Ranvir Shorey married critically acclaimed actor and director Konkona Sen Sharma in 2010; the couple separated in 2015 and finalized their divorce in 2020 while continuing to co-parent their son.
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Rahul Bhatt’s recent public admission has brought fresh scrutiny to how media narratives were constructed during that era, offering long-delayed corroboration of Shorey’s account of the altercation.
