Bhatt was born on 24 February 1972 to Mahesh Bhatt and Kiran Bhatt (born Loraine Bright). On her father’s side, Bhatt is of predominantly Gujarati descent and on her mother’s side, she is of English, Scottish, Armenian, and Burmese ancestry. She is the step-daughter of Soni Razdan. She has a brother, Rahul Bhatt and half-sisters Shaheen and Alia Bhatt. Her cousins are Hitarth Bhat and Emraan Hashmi.

Bhatt made her acting debut at age 17, in 1989 with Daddy, a TV film directed by her father Mahesh Bhatt. In the film she portrayed a soul-searching teenage girl in an estranged relationship with her alcoholic father, played by actor Anupam Kher.

Her last film appearance was in the English language film Everybody Says I’m Fine! in 2001. She has since focused on producing and directing. She made her directorial debut with Paap in 2004, starring John Abraham and Udita Goswami. Since then, she has made four more directorial ventures: Holiday (2006), Dhokha (2007), Kajraare (2010) and Jism 2 (2012).

Pooja is set to return to acting after almost two decades in Sadak 2, a sequel to the hit 1991 film. The film will see her and Sanjay Dutt reprising their roles from the original and her sister Alia Bhatt and Aditya Roy Kapur joining the cast. Her father will be returning to directing with this film after 20 years and it is set for release in 2020.