Karan Johar: "I needed to make a film that celebrates everything we love about Indian cinema"

Filmmaker Karan Johar. (Photo: Niharika Kulkarni/Reuters)

A few weeks ago, producer-director, talk show host and now reality TV show host Karan Johar was invited as a guest speaker by the alumni association of the London School of Economics’ Mumbai chapter. The association approached me to moderate the session during which Johar spoke candidly and shared experiences about his more than 20-year long career as a director, his thoughts about the proliferation of digital entertainment and his feelings about directing his latest feature film.

The complete recording is available on youtube.com, but here are some excerpts from the chat:

As a multi-hyphenate professional, which description do you identify with most?

Foremost, I am a filmmaker and that is one aspect of my inherent identity that I am completely passionate about. Sometimes the other activities I indulge in overshadow it, and I have had a lot of gaps in between films, but that’s because a lot of my time went into structuring my studio and branching into verticals, but at heart, I will always be a filmmaker first.

As head of your studio, how do you juggle being a producer and a director?

When I am directing a film, I pretend somebody else is producing it. When I am directing, I am just being a passionate filmmaker and I choose every frame and ensure I am satisfied creatively. Dharma Productions has introduced nearly 25 directors, and I am more compassionate to their demands and needs and even their insecurities because I know how you want the best for every frame of your film. But as a producer, one cannot forget that there is commerce attached to the world of art.

As a producer, how do you choose films?

I like to believe I am very instinctive. Whether it is choosing a script or a filmmaker to work with, they have to have me at hello. When I am reading a screenplay, 20 pages in and I know whether I want to make this film or don’t want to make it at all. I must admit, it’s only instinct which means that eight out of ten times, I have gotten it right but some have gone wrong and I acknowledge the flaws and mistakes and learn from those.

Given a chance, is there any film directed by you that you would want to redo?

Sometimes you really love something on paper and you like the process of it but when you see the final product, you feel things didn’t add up. For example, I was very attached to Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, but when I saw the final cut, I thought I had messed up in a couple of ways, like I had used too many songs and made it too big in scale. That story required more intimacy. Having said that, a film about fidelity and infidelity is polarising and cannot be ignored. I was onto a strong idea but half way through, I sold out and introduced set piece songs and scale that it didn’t need. That’s one film I want to make again. I think I fumbled on that one.

If you had to make Dostana today, would you approach it the same way?

I am very proud of Dostana. It brought homosexuality into drawing rooms in metros, tier 2 cities and smaller towns. I have pushed LGBTQ stories since we dabbled with it in Kal Ho Naa Ho with the Kanta bai narrative. Then there was the short I directed for Bombay Talkies and we produced Kapoor and Sons. Dostana did bring homosexuality into the mainstream, even if the men were pretending to be gay, and yes, it was criticised for being caricaturish, but we had to guise it in comedy to make it mainstream. That’s not something I would do again.

You are getting back to direction after nearly five years. Tell us something about Rocky Aur Rani ki Prem Kahani and other future plans.

My state of mind determines my cinematic choices. Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani stars Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt, and my state of mind right now is to have lots of fun. Over the last two years, we have all felt a lot of pressure, depression, anxiety, isolation and deep-rooted insecurity. I felt like I needed to make a film that celebrates everything we love about Indian cinema, which are happiness, songs, dance, fun and life. I needed a film to have all the entertainment oxygen in one film. I didn’t want to do something real and dramatic but create my kind of film in an updated fashion. I am very excited about directing a feature film after a gap of five years and being back on set, wearing the director’s hat. I am also very excited about building Dharmatic, which focuses on building digital content, because I believe digital is a large part of our entertainment future and I really want to get that right.