The Unusual Gem

Sheela Bhatt is a veteran journalist with a career spanning over four decades and has covered a host of beats as a field reporter and has also donned the roles of an editor and publisher. Sheela is known for her work as a crime journalist and she has interviewed all mafia dons of Mumbai’s underworld, which include Karim Lala to Vardarajan Mudaliar and Chhota Shakeel to Dawood Ibrahim. She is one of the few journalists who has interviewed Dawood in-person at his Dubai home and is known to have had access to the mafia don for years. Recently, a picture posted by Sheela on her Twitter account went viral on social media in which she can be seen sitting with Dawood interviewing him. Apart from field journalism, Sheela has covered all general elections since 1979 and continues to write on politics, international affairs, among others. In this edition of ANI Podcast with Smita Prakash, Sheela talks about her entry into journalism, her personal life and marriage to Kanti Bhatt and the transition from being a revenue reporter to running a magazine of her own. She also talks about the Godhra riots and how religion is being used for defining politics.