Pope invites Mahesh and Pooja Bhatt to Vatican City

Indian Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt said he and his daughter Pooja are the only Indian artists invited by the Pope, who is meeting artists across the globe in the Vatican City to discuss global peace.

Indian Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt said he and his daughter Pooja are the only Indian artists invited by the Pope, who is meeting artists across the globe in the Vatican City to discuss global peace.

The father-daughter duo will join 500 others artists at the Sistine chapel Nov 21.

"It is true that Pooja and I will be meeting the Pope in the Vatican. Five hundred artists from around the world have been invited by the Pope and we are the ones from India. We will leave on Nov 19," Mahesh Bhatt told IANS.

"There is a discord between the church and the artist community for quite some time now. The church wants to begin a process to have an intense interaction with the artist community so that both can contribute together in terms of global peace," added Bhatt, who has helmed films like Arth, Saaransh, Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke and Zakhm, among others.