I mean whats in it for him? She is not his reaal daughter or sister or any other relative. She is not his adopted daughter. He is not her manager. He does not get a percentage of his movies. Yet we always see he promotes her very very hard.
He gets commission in her projects and gets to stay relevant in the young fan circuit.
He is a shrewd guy and is also preparing her backups like sara, janhvi, khushi, ananya, tara etc etc.. The minute alia gets married he will drop her like a hit potato and informally adopt one of these girls.
There is definitely money - Karan Johar keeps a cut from Alia's paychecks. With establishing Alia's success, he thinks it will make him king maker or star maker for future nepo kids - that's a business model. There's also the power component. Born in the industry, vast network and master manipulator. He knows no loyalty. Knows everyone's dirt and uses them as leverage.
Here is an article of how Harvey Weinstein manipulated industry people across the board to further his agenda. Barring the sexual abuse component, master manipulators function similarly.https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/05/us/harvey-weinstein-complicity.html
Quoting:
Mr. Weinstein's final, failed round of manipulations shows how he operated for more than three decades: by trying to turn others into instruments or shields for his behavior, according to nearly 200 interviews, internal company records and previously undisclosed emails. Some aided his actions without realizing what he was doing. Many knew something or detected hints, though few understood the scale of his sexual misconduct. Almost everyone had incentives to look the other way or reasons to stay silent. Now, even as the tally of Mr. Weinstein's alleged misdeeds is still emerging, so is a debate about collective failure and the apportioning of blame. ...
Mr. Weinstein held off press scrutiny with a mix of threats and enticements, drawing reporters close with the lure of access to stars, directors and celebrity-packed parties. Some journalists negotiated book and movie deals with him even as they were assigned to cover him. The studio chief once paid a gossip writer to collect juicy celebrity tidbits that Mr. Weinstein could use to barter if other reporters stumbled onto an affair he was trying to keep quiet. He was so close to David J. Pecker, the chief executive of American Media Inc., which owns The Enquirer, that he was known in the tabloid industry as an untouchable "F.O.P., or "friend of Pecker. That status was shared by a chosen few, including President Trump.
KJo has definitely taken leaf out of Weinstein. He has become a power center, so no one dares to write against him. Look at how Jeetesh Pillai eats out from his hands.
Scary part is that Kjo has just begun. he will become powerful and stronger with time and control he has over all new actors.
Because Alia will do anything for fame... She's the kind who can be easily manipulated, blame her low IQ and maybe disturbing childhood(Mahesh bhatt n his affairs).. She finds it no difficult to fake relationships (sid and RK) because Karan has brainwashed her that only celeb romance gets all the attention... Even now she tries to hint at their "more than friendship" angle with varun in all interviews without thinking twice abt natasha... Karan obviously cannot force fav. Kareena to fake relationships or friendships with anyone.. So the obvious inclination towards Alia is seen. Same goes for his affection towards Mira kapoor or Malaika (as he fondly calls her "malla" )..
The reason KJo has cherry picked Alia and not any other male actor is because with the latter, their paycheck increases will the every hit, which a couple of years later turns into profit sharing and thereby reduced profits for the producer. He has cleverly picked good scripts for Alia and she has purposely kept her remuneration less so KJo can profit more. In return KJo gets her endorsements and magazine covers. She's on a cover pretty much every month plus has at least 15-20 brand deals. The latter obviously pays more than movies so it's a win win. Plus she's getting all awards for a couple of years now.
I feel he wants to make her a female superstar in the lines of Sridevi and Madhuri and she's truly on her way now that she has a movie with Rajmouli which will create a fan base down south.
Deepika had to sit at home a year after her biggest hit and Anushka has no movies in hand while Alia is juggling 4 (takht, brahmastra, inshallah, RRR) movies at a time with a 5th in the pipeline. (Neeraj Ghyawan's biopic movie)
Kjo could have done the same with Kajol's career but she was domestically inclined and Kareena but she doesnt have the ambition. She's happy doing a movie here and there; as long as she gets to go on 5 holidays a year with 'saifu'.
With Alia, he's hit the jackpot coz she's very driven, she's ready for all the linkups, hookups, blind items and willing to play the PR game.
If I remember correctly, KJo advised Varun not do Badlapur but he wanted to do all kinds of movies and did it anyway. So Kjo must have realised very early on that he can't control Varun too much.
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