Karan Johar's longest interview till date- Huffington Post - Page 6

Originally posted by: hedwig_fawkes

You know, I was just reading a Penn Badgley interview where he is talking about how audiences should NOT romanticize his character in You (on netflix now) because "he was in love!!!" is NOT an excuse to act like an entitled psychopathic stalker. And then I come here and read this, and it's like a parallel universe. Ranbir and Kjo need some counselling.

Oh, and it makes it very clear that this "person" KJo was in love with was a guy (obviously) so can people please stop with the stupid "it was Twinkle!" nonsense? Kjo is gay, can we stop erasing that part of him?

And this bit

About Varun and Alia, I am blamed for nepotism in retrospect. But at that time, nobody was aware that David Dhawan had a son who wanted to act or Mahesh Bhatt had a daughter that youngnobody knew as they weren't children of movie stars.

makes no sense. So what if the audience did not know them? It is still nepotism. You only knew them because of their parents and you chose to give them that opportunity because of their lineage, that is the definition of nepotism.

Originally posted by: hedwig_fawkes

You know, I was just reading a Penn Badgley interview where he is talking about how audiences should NOT romanticize his character in You (on netflix now) because "he was in love!!!" is NOT an excuse to act like an entitled psychopathic stalker. And then I come here and read this, and it's like a parallel universe. Ranbir and Kjo need some counselling.

Oh, and it makes it very clear that this "person" KJo was in love with was a guy (obviously) so can people please stop with the stupid "it was Twinkle!" nonsense? Kjo is gay, can we stop erasing that part of him?

And this bit

About Varun and Alia, I am blamed for nepotism in retrospect. But at that time, nobody was aware that David Dhawan had a son who wanted to act or Mahesh Bhatt had a daughter that youngnobody knew as they weren't children of movie stars.

makes no sense. So what if the audience did not know them? It is still nepotism. You only knew them because of their parents and you chose to give them that opportunity because of their lineage, that is the definition of nepotism.

Originally posted by: MoonOrchid

So much BS in this intterview😆

Especially here

<font color="#333333">How do you deal with the accusations of being elitist, working largely with stars or those who come from a family with pedigree?</font><font color="#ff0000">(Thank Goodness someone is asking this !)</font>

<font color="#333333">In the past, i've taken chances but it's not that I get any credit for that. Suddenly this nepotism' tag has been given to me.</font><font color="#ff0000" size="2">Yes</font><font color="#333333">,</font><font color="#ff0000"><font size="3"></font><font size="2">you shouted of the rooftops how nepotism is better!- and KJo 'took chances'... LMAO!</font><font size="3"></font></font><font color="#333333">When I cast Varun, nobody else knew who he was or what was happening. I knew him before he was around. I saw potential in him.Masny knew.</font><font color="#ff0000"> Difference is, all industry knew DD and his son and you MADE sure <font size="3">EVERYONE in India</font> knew- whether he's that great of an actor or pushed with star-vehicle roles..it's for another discussion.</font>

That's what also happened with Siddharth, he's not from the movies.<font color="#ff0000">And Sid is so bad it<font size="3"> almost looks</font>like<font size="3">you chose him to show how ALL non star kids are crappy</font>...</font><font color="#333333">Unlike today, nobody had even heard of Alia Bhatt, it was not that she was popular before. </font><font color="#ff0000">She was in all FF and other awards, filmed in 2013, 2014 and so on, I remember noticing her after a RK-Anushka shot. So she was in industry, mingling, before hitting 15 -and I see many star kids way before debuting being shown.</font><font color="#333333">Today's star kids are way more famous before their first films. </font><font color="#ff0000">Just because they are famous doesn't mean they are good at acting.Most are not even decent.</font>

<font color="#333333">If I cast Tara Sutaria, nobody will say anything</font><font color="#ff0000"> (If she is good, of course not)</font><font color="#333333">, but if I take Ananya Pandey, I will be accused of nepotism </font><font color="#ff0000">(Because you yourself declared nepo kids to have better qualities than outsiders- many times.So people know you'd chose them over talented actors, just cause their parents are famous)</font><font color="#333333">.</font>

<font color="#333333">Has there been any self-reflection?</font><font color="#ff0000">(Lol, you are smart, reporter, pushing him)</font>

I don't feel I should be accountable to anyone for my decisions.<font color="#ff0000">Nope, but don't pretend you're some equal opportunity job giver.You love your starkids. Stop trying to twist it.</font><font color="#333333">I'm making films and casting actors and I'm in a business. </font><font color="#ff0000">And only recently, because you saw your movies aren't that greatly received with JUST star kids, you mixed it, by giving bit roles to Anushka et al. But <font size="3">you'd do a whole star kid movie if you thought audievce would buy it</font>. Once your 'stable' increases, I can see that happening- whole multi star cast of nepo kids.</font><font color="#333333">If I feel that something is a good commercial decision I'll do it, I'm in the business.</font><font color="#ff0000">And business was bad recently, thus you started taking outsiders (besides SRK KAJOL) in movies few years back</font><font color="#333333"> If I think I need a star, I will cast one. If I need a new face, I will take a newcomer.</font>

<font color="#333333">But a creative industry owes its audience to scout for the best possible talent that's not exclusively passed down the gene pool </font><font color="#ff0000">(exac</font><font color="#ff0000">tly, so let's not pretend just cause their parents are stars thery are good actors)</font><font color="#333333">, from a star parent to a superstar son.</font>

<font color="#333333">It's not that we haven't. We widen our spectrum with all kinds of actors and roles, why have I become responsible for this movement?</font><font color="#ff0000">Not responsible, you're just trying hard to hold the nepo stable 'well and growing'.</font><font color="#333333">I'm happy for someone else to make them stars but I need to make films that are viable to me and make sense to me and I'm in the business of commerce and art. </font><font color="#ff0000">So he admits that no one but him is pushing for star kids to become stars in movies. Uff..</font>

I have to do what is sensible. I mean, I'm not running an NGO, you're saying that I have a creative obligation and yes, there is. In that process, I will try not to cast a bad actor. <font color="#ff0000" size="3">Cmon, all nepo kids are crap at beginning. And even you've noticed Karan, thus you now 'train' them in your 'Academy'- your own words 3 years back!- before launching them,...so they are at least half-decent ... or not as disastruously bad as before.</font>

<font color="#333333">If I believe that an actor is good for a part, whether he or she is a part of the film industry is irrelevant. And let me tell you, talent doesn't survive if it isn't good.<font size="3"> </font></font><font color="#ff0000" size="3">In BW it survives- and too well!! for their limited/nonexistent talent. Most of these star kids would barely get a talking part in a meritocratic movie inudstry elsewhere.</font>

<font color="#333333">The fact that they are still around means that they are good at something, it's not that I've cast actors that have gone off the radar.</font><font color="#ff0000" size="3">Yes you did. Pushed them so much and praised them and mentioned them everywhere, PR articles included, that people are gbelieving in your PR BS and start believing these nepo kids are good actors..lol.</font>

<font color="#333333">No, you give them a considerable amount of push despite their failings.</font><font color="#ff0000" size="3">(Thank you, good reporter!)</font>

<font color="#333333">But it's not like they are best friends or family. I just happen</font><font color="#ff0000"><font size="3">(haha)</font> </font><font color="#333333">to spot them, see them and nurture them.</font><font color="#ff0000"><font size="3">(So it's not the parents and you making a plan for their entrance in BW- as you've already explained re: Sridevi and Jhanvi? Riiight)</font> </font><font color="#333333">If, tomorrow, a casting director gets me a great talent, I will definitely give them the same chance I'd give a star kid.</font><font color="#ff0000"><font size="3">(mhm,,maybe, if you cannot get a star kid to 'carry' your 'flah-blah movie)</font>.</font><font color="#333333"> It's not that I'm choosing one over the other, it's what I get, it's what I'm surrounded by. If tomorrow, a genius actor is born </font><font size="3" color="#ff0000">(Right so outsider has to be GENIUS actor, yet nepo kids can be - as seen- really crappy in acting? Nice .. way of choosing the future 'talent' !),</font><font color="#333333"> not to a fraternity background, and I feel like he or she is great for a part, obviously I will cast them.</font>

<font color="#333333">But why is this only my burden? Why am I just the flagbearer for this? Why won't the others do it? Why can't everyone share that responsibility?</font><font color="#ff0000"> (Because you said so many times you feel like you are taking it upon yourself to promote and sustain the nepo kids. And you were proud of it too, untill your big bruahaha at IIFA) </font>Can every internet site stop writing about Suhana, Ananya, Aryan and Taimur from the time they are 2 years old? Can you stop reporting about them? Then I will say okay, well, let's give this a fair shot<font size="3" color="#ff0000">.(Difference is, those writing about them write to get a buck,. They are not making them movie stars. Taking a picture DOES NOT EQUAL casting them in movies,. where their job SHOULD be to ACT. GOOD.)</font> These kids become known names and viable options for producers because you made them. So you need to stop writing. But you can't stop writing because that's what sells and I'm fully aware that there is a certain excitement built already.<font size="3" color="#ff0000"> (selling a picture is not making them into an artist. You are changing perception.. from just a star kid to someone 'talented', 'great'.. which most nepo kids surely are NOT)</font>

<font size="2" color="#333333">It's the same logic. When the stakes are high, we leverage that excitement and</font> sometimes the stakes are not high, so you take new talent. About Varun and Alia, I am blamed for nepotism in retrospect. But at that time, nobody was aware that David Dhawan had a son who wanted to act or Mahesh Bhatt had a daughter that youngnobody knew as they weren't children of movie stars.<font size="3" color="#ff0000"> Cmon! You probably cooked up the whole movie with them 2- which are PRODUCERS each - surely they both knew scripts and what movie can serve their kids best.</font>

<font color="#333333">But no, the first thing you want to do is attack. And I would apologise but I don't need to for doing my job</font><font color="#ff0000">.</font><font size="3" color="#ff0000">(You 'doing your job is making BW the laughing stock of competitive, meritocratic movie industries, where auditions and casting on merit and quality is THE Absolute Rule. Not some flimsy excuse for casting subpar people that would then do anything for your helping their medicore selves get money and fame</font><font color="#ff0000">)</font><font color="#333333"> If you're not happy, you need to deal with yourself and before you say that it's complicity, it totally is. You report, you make them stars and then you attack us for casting them.</font>

How's your equation withKangana Ranaut? Can you work with someone you've had a heavily publicised ideological conflict with?

<font color="#333333">I have no problem with her. Tomorrow, if I feel like she is really required for a film, I will work with her. </font><font color="#ff0000" size="3">No. You wouldn't.</font>The film I was directing didn't have any scope for her, in my opinion, and no director has come to me with the desire to cast her.<font size="2" color="#ff0000">Lol, okay, like you would ever</font><font color="#333333">. I, therefore, have not cast her. No lead actor has asked for her. </font><font color="#ff0000">So if a lead actor would ask, you'd simply okay it? LMAO, what BS!</font><font color="#333333"> Just because we had personal differences doesn't mean we are not going to work together. </font><font color="#ff0000">You will not cast her even if she's the last actress left in BW.</font><font color="#333333"> Anurag Kashyap and I had a huge problem but he still wrote dialogues for</font>Kurbaan<font><font color="#333333">. </font><font color="#ff0000">Anurag didn't publicly made you a fool, or force you to apologise. I feel you dislike Kangana WAY MORE than anyone else.</font><font color="#333333"> I am a working filmmaker. I don't have problems or issues with anybody and I certainly don't take them to my workplace.</font><font color="#ff0000">Tell that to SRK that you kinda dumped. Or others that never get a role from you- besides crappy bit roles you know they'd refuse</font><font color="#333333">. If the film demands a Kangana, if a filmmaker wants her then why not? It's a commercial deal and there are no emotions involved in commerce.</font></font>

<li></li>

Do you think you would change anything about your past films?

<font color="#333333">Actually I have a problem with all my films besides</font>Ae Dil Hai Mushkil<font color="#333333">because that's a film I wanted to make even while knowing that the last act may get a polarised response. It's a film I wanted to make because it's personal and was cathartic for me. Ranbir (Kapoor) played me. I wanted to deal with the injury caused by a heartbreak. </font><font color="#ff0000">Wow. Speechless. So he'd dump all his movies for the mess that was ADHM? Okay.. He defo loves RK a lot.</font>

I have issues withKuch Kuch Hota Hai,Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham,Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna,Student of the Year,My Name is Khan, all of them but aboutAe Dil, I wouldn't change a thing.

<font color="#333333">But it's perhaps your most problematic film so far, as far as gender dynamics are concerned..</font><font color="#ff0000">.(thank you again, reporter.You are great- point out the obvious to this two faced..wannabe great director)</font>

<font color="#333333">When I made this film, I felt that this should make Rs 100 crore. I wanted the film to make its money back, which it did and was declared a good film.</font><font color="#ff0000">(you kinda pushed it there- it barely made it..or not depends on who you read)</font><font color="#333333"> Yes, the last track met with many polarised responses and rightfully so, but I was like she (Anushka Sharma's character Alizeh who doesn't reciprocate Ayan's feelings) didn't love him, she has to die</font><font color="#ff0000">.(the last bit was a ridiculous mess)</font>

<font color="#333333">I wrote this character. </font><font color="#ff0000">(I can see. It was so bad!)</font>

<font color="#333333">He loved her so crazily. She could've loved him back, why couldn't she? So she got cancer and she died. </font><font color="#ff0000">(lmao..is this a 9 year old writing or what?)</font>

<font color="#333333">Umm, it felt like you were punishing her for not reciprocating his romantic feelings</font><font color="#ff0000">.(Exactly.Astute reporter)</font>

<font color="#333333">Well, she got punished, I wrote it. See, a filmmaker is a God, you write, you create and you destroy.</font><font color="#ff0000">(nonsensical explanation.)</font>

<font color="#333333">Yes, but it doesn't change the fact that it's a problematic idea to espouse.</font><font color="#ff0000">(Right?Thank you!)</font>

<font color="#333333">How is it problematic? He was not inappropriate with her.</font><font color="#ff0000">(Pfft, you can't even see your faulty writing)</font>

<font size="3"><font color="#333333">He</font>does</font><font color="#333333"><font size="3">get physically aggressive and for the rest of the film, guilt-trips her into loving him back, which is a very unhealthy emotion to celebrate</font>. </font><font color="#ff0000">(And should NOT be celebrated.Urrrgh!)</font>

I mean, okay, yes in that one part, that one section, on the terrace. Right<font color="#ff0000">.(Wowo- did he just admit he sees the problem? ...)</font>

<font color="#333333">I didn't look at it like that, to me he was just a puppy who was just in love and it's not like she didn't love him.</font><font color="#ff0000">(Simplistic and regressive view) </font><font color="#333333">She just didn't love him in the way that he wanted her to love him. About the physical aggression, I apologise.</font><font color="#ff0000">(You apologise Now! Whew! Where was your 'human sense' at that point?)</font><font color="#333333"> That is not something I had thought of earlier and I should have.</font>

<font color="#333333">But I am not going to be apologetic about his relentlessness and his love, because he loved her even after she was gone. He never stopped loving her. That's the way I feel about the big loves of my life. I will never stop loving them and I may not go so relentless in my pursuit of love but I believe Ayan was a lover. (</font><font color="#ff0000">So an ABUSER/STALKER is fine as logn as he is a lover. Okay.that's crazyyy..)</font>

Originally posted by: return_to_hades

I have not seen 'You' yet. But for all intents and purposes, Joe Goldberg is the villain. There may be moments when he appears sympathetic. He may come across as a good guy gone astray. Some people may even romanticize him. But the bottom line is he is the villain, the bad guy on the show. He does terrible things in the name of love. It is a cautionary tale about our notions of love' It shows the harsh reality that love, no matter how sincere and deep, can be destructive. Sometimes, we have to take a step back from love.

On the other hand ADHM makes Ayan Sanger the hero. Despite Alizeh never requiting his romantic feelings, the movie paints them hero-heroine. KJo wants Ayan to be seen as this unconditional lover who has been wrong. Instead of seeing Ayan's obsession as problematic and dangerous, it is presented as aspirational. Ultimately Alizeh has to suffer for rejecting his unconditional love.

Initially, I thought that ADHM was a botched up attempt of showing a tale of unrequited love. I thought the intent was to make a bittersweet romance like 500 days of summer but it failed due to poor scripting. Now I am convinced that KJO is a f**king psychopath who wants to make movies promoting f**ked up notions of love.

It just blows my mind that the same director who had such a raw painful take on homosexual love in Bombay Talkies and such a refreshing take on female sexuality and desire in Lust Stories has such messed up views. It leaves me utterly confused.

Originally posted by: hedwig_fawkes

Have you watched "You" on netflix? Major Joe Goldberg vibes.

Originally posted by: return_to_hades

...

It just blows my mind that the same director who had such a raw painful take on homosexual love in Bombay Talkies and such a refreshing take on female sexuality and desire in Lust Stories has such messed up views. It leaves me utterly confused.

Originally posted by: ThunderLight

And oppression of Men too. After all, what do u even think has Stalker Kangana been doing ever since Hrithik did not respond to her creepy advances. "I will scar you" is what she wrote. Though i dont think she loved him for real. More like she wanted to use him for publicity which explains her publicity gimmicks since then.

But, I never expected an apparently "Sane" guy like Karan Johar to justify the Sadistic notions of a unreciprocated love with "So, she got cancer" or saying "why could she not love him back". If u love someone TRULY and even if you dont get a reciprocation, you may get angry or sad or frustrated but you will never hurt that person.

Not just that, I also didnot understand why he says you need a third person to know if you are in love with someone. Looks like he has misunderstood love for possession.

I really dont think he has genuinely loved someone. If he did, he would never have made his gullible mentees to make a mockery of it for their promotional stunts. Is that why Alia-Varun- Sid angles etc are always cooked up by his PR?