The 43-year-old, who made her debut with the 1989 film "Daddy", on Thursday said her uncle Mukesh Bhatt offered her a role in the highly acclaimed film, but she declined because her boyfriend did not want her to be an actress.
"I had a boyfriend and I was in love with him since I was 12-year-old. When I was 16, I started dating him. At 17 I did 'Daddy' and at 18 I was offered 'Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin.
"So he very patiently went through the phase of my first film and said 'If you want to marry me, drop movie offers as I'll never marry an actor'," Pooja said at an event here when asked why she refused her uncle's offer.
Pooja shared insights about her life during a session on the second day of Jagran Film Festival here. The five-day gala was being held in Siri Fort Auditorium.
"Being a romantic person, I said I'll do anything for love. Then Mukeshji (Mukesh Bhatt) came to my house with signing amount for the role, but I refused the offer. He called my father and asked him to make me understand. But I never agreed to do it.
"And then my relationship ended with that person, though he still is a very dear friend of mine. But then life took over. So now I think I should have done the film," she added.
Produced by Mukesh Bhatt, "Aashiqui", which starred Rahul Roy, Anu Aggarwal and Deepak Tiori, was both critically as well as commercially successful particularly because of its music.
A sequel to the 1990 film, titled "Aashiqui 2", with a completely new theme, directed by Mohit Suri with Aditya Roy Kapur and Shraddha Kapoor in the lead, was released in 2013.
Meanwhile, Pooja, who starred in films like "Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin", "Sadak", "Sir" and "Zakhm", was judging the sixth edition of the film fest along with music sensation Udit Narayan, ad-director and cinematographer Mahesh Aney, Malayalam cinema icon Hariharan and renowned film editor A. Sreekar Prasad.
