Ameesha Patel on how dating Vikram Bhatt affected her career: ‘In this industry, honesty is not welcome’

Ameesha Patel said that talking publicly about Vikram Bhatt and their relationship ruined her career. The actor said that as a result she ‘kept away from men’ for more than a decade. Ameesha and Vikram dated for many years before they broke up. (Also read: Ameesha Patel accuses Gadar 2 director Anil Sharma of mismanagement on sets)

Ameesha Patel’s relationship with Vikram

Soon after his breakup with Sushmita Sen, filmmaker Vikram Bhatt reportedly started dating Ameesha Patel. They reportedly began dating while working on Ankahee (2006). It was before the release of Vikram’s film 1920 (2008) that they reportedly broke up.

Impact on Ameesha’s career

Asked if talking about her relationship with Vikram had an adverse effect on her life, Ameesha told Bollywood Hungama, “In this industry, honesty is not welcome and I am someone, who is very honest. I am someone, who wears my heart on my sleeves. I think that has been the biggest drawback for me in my life. And definitely, the only two relationships that I ever had in public, the only two I ever had, they did take a beating on my career. For 12-13 years, I was like, ‘No men. Only peace. I want nothing else in my life’.”

Speaking about the effects it had on her professional life, the actor added, “Because the single status of a girl is always more attractive to the people that you work around. It’s always more attractive for your audiences. And they feel if you’re single or you’re dating someone in the industry or a superstar, that only benefits your career. Otherwise, they don’t accept it. See, a heroine dating a hero can still do films with the hero and continue getting work. For me, that was not the case. So, it does take a beating but you learn from it.”

Vikram on Ameesha

Earlier, Vikram had talked about his relationship with Ameesha and said that he never wanted to marry her. “No, I didn’t want to marry either of them. And it’s not like there’s any bitterness. There’s too much water under the bridge now,” he had told HT Brunch in a 2017 interview.

In 2007, Vikram also wrote an article for Hindustan Times in which he had said, “People like Ameesha Patel, who speak their mind without thinking, are not necessarily immature. So people like Ameesha Patel, who are not scared to speak their mind are not necessarily immature or people like me, who keep quiet all the time, are mature. People will forgive Ameesha anything because somewhere she does not mean to be hurtful. It’s her childlike persona. She’s supposed to be childlike while I’m supposed to be mature.”