"I was called a movie mafia." Karan Johar revealed how he braved criticism and online hate with the right mindset.
🎥: Sucharita Tyagi
🎥: Sucharita Tyagi
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Everyone has taken off their clothes now.
00:02What is it now?
00:04What to hide now?
00:05Who to fight now?
00:07I felt there was a lot of hate
00:08you know, that was coming my way.
00:10It had really, really, really taken a toll on my mom.
00:25I'm going to get a little bit personal, okay, Karan.
00:28In the last season of Coffee with Karan also,
00:30I felt like I saw you being more comfortable in your skin,
00:33who you are, more relaxed, more at ease,
00:36more self-deprecating humor.
00:38While it's great to see you at the age of 51
00:41being like, this is me.
00:42How did you know that you reached a point in your life
00:45where you were ready to bear your soul like this
00:47in this movie, on your show, in life?
00:49I realized I had nothing to lose anymore.
00:51Like in the last couple of years,
00:54and even before that,
00:55I realized that this is my life
00:57and who am I lying to about any part of my life?
01:00And then the last three years, Sucharita,
01:02where there was, I felt there was a lot of hate,
01:05you know, that was coming my way.
01:07And it had really, really, really taken a toll on my mom,
01:10you know, and I saw her literally crumble under that
01:14because she used to watch TV channels,
01:15you know, she was reading stuff online.
01:18She's quite happy like that in those zones.
01:20And she was watching TV anchors screaming and shouting
01:23and saying the most like god-awful things about me,
01:26you know, demonizing me for some reason.
01:28And then there were people who were like,
01:30kind of writing the same on Twitter
01:32and other social media platforms.
01:33And all I had to be was resilient at that time
01:37because I had to be strong for my own mom and for myself.
01:41But then, you know, you feel kind of naked
01:43after all of that has happened.
01:44You feel like,
01:45abhi toh kapde utaar diye sabne.
01:47Abhi kya hai?
01:50Abhi kya chhupana?
01:51Ab kisse ladna?
01:52Abhi now everyone anyway has kind of like
01:55stormed into your life, made assumptions,
01:58made presumptions.
01:58They don't know the person I am.
02:00They may never.
02:00And they just made this perception of this mafia,
02:05whatever they keep talking about.
02:06And I'm like, yeah,
02:07they don't know how a producer on a daily basis
02:10is trying to get his or her film cast.
02:12No matter which position you're in,
02:14you're calling five actors.
02:15Sometimes all five say no.
02:16Then you're making some, you're managing a budget.
02:19Just because you have perceived to be ahead of a studio
02:22doesn't mean you don't have your own like daily anxieties.
02:25And you have your own personal mental health issues,
02:27which nobody ever knows about.
02:29Because I was in that feeling of liberation,
02:31in any case, I felt like now I'm not going to pretend anymore.
02:34In our cinema, we tend to pretend.
02:36We pretend a value system sometimes.
02:38So we pretend like,
02:40we pretend a moment that is what you think
02:42an audience will like.
02:43But when Ranveer Singh and Totara H.O. 3
02:46break into Dola Re Dola,
02:47that's my inner feeling.
02:48Like, you know,
02:49it's like I want to do that dance somewhere.
02:52I probably will also, doing me.
02:55And I'm like, there's going to be no shame on that
02:58because like, I feel like doing Dola Re Dola right now.
03:01So that is why I think a lot of the abandon
03:04and a lot of the,
03:06I would say freedom of thought
03:09came from years
03:12of absorbing the negativity
03:15and still holding on to my individuality.
03:18So when you speak about the film's individuality,
03:20it comes from actually,
03:23it just comes from a place of resilience.
03:25And it comes from a place of like,
03:26now I don't want to pretend anymore
03:28because I don't have to.
03:30I'm like, if they think the cat is out of the bag
03:32and they have control on that cat and that bag,
03:35that's their problem.
03:36I am going to be who I am
03:37and I'm not going to give a damn.