Karan Johar calls it 'digital detox' after unfollowing Shah Rukh Khan, Alia Bhatt and others

Filmmaker Karan Johar has finally addressed the speculation around his recent Instagram activity after social media users noticed that he had unfollowed several Bollywood celebrities, including Shah Rukh Khan, Ananya Panday and Kartik Aaryan.

The sudden changes in his following list quickly became a topic of discussion online, with fans questioning whether there was tension between Johar and some of his close industry friends and collaborators.

Responding to the chatter, Johar shared a clarification on Instagram and dismissed rumours of any fallout. “It’s a DIGITAL DETOX!!!! Am unfollowing everyone to reduce my time and energy spent on the gram!!! This can’t be national news for god’s sake...please clickbait something else! This is irrelevant!” he wrote.

The filmmaker’s statement came after several users tracked the accounts he no longer follows. Apart from Shah Rukh Khan, Ananya Panday and Kartik Aaryan, celebrity designer Manish Malhotra also appeared missing from his following list. Names like Kareena Kapoor Khan, Malaika Arora, Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt were also reportedly absent.

Interestingly, Priyanka Chopra continues to remain on Karan Johar’s following list, something that also drew attention online.

Karan Johar’s social media activity became a talking point largely because of his long professional history and personal friendships within the Hindi film industry. The sudden unfollowing spree led to online theories about possible disagreements, though the filmmaker has now clarified that the decision was only meant to reduce time spent on social media platforms.

As of Thursday evening, Johar was following 78 accounts on Instagram while having nearly 17.5 million followers. Several fan pages and entertainment forums also continued debating whether more celebrities would eventually reappear on his following list.

On the work front, Karan Johar recently backed Chand Mera Dil starring Lakshya and Ananya Panday. His upcoming production venture is Naagzilla, which stars Kartik Aaryan in the lead role.