His plays made shows in the UK, United States, and Europe and gained enormous popularity over there.
Those include Prashant Damle, Vikram Gokhale, Kavita Lad, Dilip Prabhavalkar.
He even drew flak for alleged unfair allotment of performance slots in Mumbai's select auditoriums.
However, Bhat maintained he stood for quality theatre, good marketing and high production values.
Despite the barrage of criticism, his commercial success did bring a sparkle to Mumbai's theatre arts in the 90s, when none of the plays were doing well.
In spite of his economic orientation, Bhat deserves credit for some off-track plays that expanded the Marathi theatre cosmos.
The play was about a resilient, ageing, upper caste widower, who befriends his female Dalit nurse, much to the indignation of his family.
For instance, his production of PL Deshpande's life sketches 'Vyakti ani Valli' introduced the new generation to a masterpiece of humour.