There is an immediate and ineradicable relatability between Karan Johar and the people he befriends. I count myself among his close friends.
I vividly remember the first time I spoke to him. It took time. I had loved Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and keenly wanted to speak to him. I asked a dear friend, a sophisticated actress and also a chat-show hostess if she would introduce us. “Darling, I can’t disturb him just like that. I will see when I can mention him to you,” she assured me. I believed her blindly. She was, after all, my dear friend.
Months and years passed. Then Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham came. I still hadn’t spoken to Karan Johar. One day, a kindhearted publicist called and asked if I’d like to talk to Karan Johar.
I said, sure, why not? (pretending to be nonchalant).
That’s when we spoke for the first time. We warmed up to each other instantaneously. I still remember the conversation vividly.
When I told him about the mutual friend whom I had requested for an introduction with Karan, he asked, “Why did you need someone to introduce us? Who doesn’t know you in this film industry? In any case, she’s just a jealous bitch.”
Our conversations since then are filled with gossip and banter. Every time I visit Mumbai, a meal with Karan is a must. Now it’s at his home with his lovely, friendly twins running around happily. Earlier it was generally at an upmarket eatery chosen by him. He would just recommend the food and watch me eat. I’ve never seen Karan eating at any meal. Once, he invited my friend Sanjay Leela Bhansali and me to his home for lunch; the spread was as epic as the star cast of K3G. And why not? I peeped into the kitchen there were three househelps busy inside.
“But my dear, the food was all ordered from outside. Those women in the kitchen are just pretending to be busy,” Karan quipped.
Once, when I was in Mumbai for my friend’s film Black to be premiered, Karan was down with jaundice. This is the only time I went in his bedroom. He was lying on a classy double bed with a picture of Yash Chopra overhead.
“Yashji reminds me of sarson ke khet. The yellow colour is very apt at the moment,” came Karan’s jaundiced opinion.
Over the years, I’ve witnessed many acts of Karan’s generosity. The one that I will never forget has to do with my daughter. She wanted to meet her crush, Shah Rukh Khan. Karan not only arranged the meeting, he accompanied us to Film City, where Shah Rukh was shooting with Farah Khan. He made sure SRK spent a good amount of time with my daughter.
He is now a happy father to two lovely children. Karan’s world now revolves around Roohi and Yash. He makes sure he is around before they go to sleep. He never misses a single opportunity to spend time with them. He has never looked happier.
I think he stopped looking for a companion after the twins came into his life. I always feared that Karan’s fair-weather friends—the actors, directors, technicians, and writers—who hover around him would desert him one day when he got old.
Not any longer. Karan has now entered a new phase in his life. His twins have brought a gorgeous gravitas to his life, to his public image, and also to his cinema. Neeraj Ghaiwan’s Homebound, which Karan has proudly produced, is no fluff stuff.
I’ve known Karan Johar almost forever. One evening long ago, I was sitting with Priyanka Chopra at her home, and Karan rang evidently to ask when I would be reaching his place. I hesitated to answer the phone. I told Priyanka that I’d have to skip my meeting with Karan as I was exhausted.
Priyanka looked at me sternly and said, “You can’t do that to Karan Johar.”
Copy that.
Karan Johar is a film industry within the film industry. Aspiring actors, directors, and technicians from out of town head to his office the minute they arrive in Mumbai in the hope that Karan Johar would make their career.
“It’s not a magic wand, my dear, that I can wave, and voila, a star is born! It doesn’t work that way. It’s a lot of hard work and even more luck,” he once told me.
But look at the stars who have emerged in recent years from Dharma Productions: Alia Bhatt, Siddharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor, and now Ishaan Khatter. The number of directors and technicians Karan has given to the industry could fill up Kareena Kapoor Khan’s shoe closet.
I bring up the gorgeous Kareena because she is Karan’s favourite. Alia Bhatt would probably be heartbroken to hear that, and Kajol, Karan’s other hot favourite, wouldn’t care less. But Kareena, it is. I know there was a point when the two had a fight over the remuneration for a film that Karan offered her. For the record, it was Kal Ho Na Ho, and Karan thought Kareena, being a friend, would jump at it, especially since his father had recently passed away.
It wasn’t so much the staggering amount that hit Karan. It was the sheer ill-timing of the remunerative demand just when he needed his friends to support him. Karan vented his ire and swore Kareena and he (and, by extension, her sister Karisma as well) would never speak again. I would laugh at his hurt act, knowing they would be kissing and hugging in no time.
The same happened with Kajol when they had a fallout. Knowing that he should never say never again, Karan “swore” on “anything that’s dear” to him that Kajol is “history.”
Well, it was not Kajol; it was their short-lived Cold War, which is history.
Once, during a casual chat recently, I asked Karan if all these “best friends” of his would be around when he is no longer the movie moghul. Karan is sure that they would be his friends “even if I could no longer afford Gucci jackets.”
Karan no longer lives in a bubble.
