Mumbai: Ranvir Shorey has reacted to Rahul Bhatt’s recent remarks about their two-decade-old altercation, hitting back at what he called “malicious propaganda and slander” and insisting that “defending yourself against violence” is not the same as “hitting.”

Ranvir shared the HT report on X and responded to the revelations.

“I’m glad over 20 years of malicious propaganda and slander has finally given way to some truth! Let me add the missing piece, so it can finally rest now: defending yourself against violence to escape someone toxic is not ‘hitting’!” he said.

The reaction came after Rahul opened up about the incident during an interaction with Siddharth Kannan on his podcast.

Recalling the altercation, Rahul admitted to assaulting Ranvir and expressed regret over his actions.

“There was an altercation between Ranvir Shorey and Pooja Bhatt. They had an argument, after which Ranvir hit her or something like that. I had to step in and, when I did, my response was a bit exaggerated. I broke his car’s glass. I broke one of his ribs. I did the wrong thing by taking the law into my own hands. Subsequently, I paid the price for it. I was arrested. Charged,” Rahul said.

Rahul also praised Ranvir for the way he handled the matter and said he regretted overreacting.

“I regret it. I shouldn’t have overreacted. Back in those days, I said I would do it again. But in the case of Ranvir Shorey, I shouldn’t have. He was very decent. During the compounding of the offence, he came forward and said, ‘Let bygones be bygones. Nobody does something like that. People usually use such situations to extract money, but he didn’t. He came and compounded the case, and the FIR was quashed. Until then, I had a criminal case pending. He was very decent in that. I respect him for that. Nobody else would have done it without holding a grudge.”

Pooja Bhatt and Ranvir Shorey dated in the early 2000s after bonding on the sets of Jism, but their relationship ended bitterly in 2002.

Ranvir later alleged that Pooja’s family portrayed him as abusive and claimed that Rahul assaulted him during an argument.

Pooja married Manish Makhija in 2003, while Ranvir married Konkona Sen Sharma in 2010. Both marriages later ended in separation.