Navjot Gulati's Pooja Meri Jaan, starring Mrunal Thakur, Huma Qureshi, and Vikram Singh Chauhan, started streaming on Zee5 on October 2, 2026. The film was completed many years ago, but finally saw the light of day. After the trailer of the film was released, many netizens felt that maybe it is inspired by the Sushant Singh Rajput and Rhea Chakraborty case. Recently, in an interview, Gulati finally revealed that his film was inspired by the Sushant-Rhea case.
During an interview with Bollywood Hungama, the filmmaker said, "No, because I started writing the film in April 2020, when Sushant Singh Rajput was still alive. Then, of course, I saw Rhea’s media trial unfold every day, like the rest of us. And I did get inspired by what was happening to her. The witch hunt against her was wrong at every level."
He further agreed that he did get inspired by what happened to Rhea, but added that it was not the trigger for him to write Pooja Meri Jaan. Gulati said, "If something I had already written was literally playing out in real life, then obviously I was going to take notes from it."
Pooja Meri Jaan Release Controversy
Pooja Meri Jaan was completed in 2022. The film, which is produced by Dinesh Vijan's Maddock Films, was slated to release on Jio Cinema. But, it wasn't premiered on the OTT platform. Earlier this year, Gulati, in an interview with Variety India, had slammed Maddock Films, claiming that they didn't care about small films.
Navjot Gulati On His Equation Maddock Films
During the interview with BH, when he was asked about his equation with the producers now, the filmmaker said, "What matters now is that the film is out. They are the producers of the film and it exists because of them. People are now talking about the film rather than the journey behind its release, and that is what matters."
