Karan Johar Calls ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ a Fake Film After 27 Years – Here’s Why!

Director Karan Johar made his Bollywood debut with the film ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai‘. The film was a box office smash. However, he faced criticism for the way Kajol‘s character was portrayed in the film.

Karan Johar recently admitted in an interview that he had not thought about the social impact of the film at all. He also said that his father Yash Johar was frustrated after five consecutive flops, so delivering a blockbuster film was his only goal.

Speaking on Lily Singh’s podcast, Karan Johar said, “I just wanted to make a big hit film. When I wrote Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, I was only 24 years old. Being the son of a producer, I had a good understanding of the box office business and how different audiences there are in the country”.

Speaking about his father’s constant failures, he said that giving a hit film was the only motivation for his father’s reputation. “My father was loved by many. But he was a producer who gave many flops one after the other. Five of his films in a row failed. I just wanted to make a big hit film. I was not thinking of making a film that could contribute to society, make a difference or make a mark. And I wanted to do it not for material reasons but for prestige reasons and to give my father his moral back,” said Karan Johar.

But when we watch a film, we often get hesitant after watching certain scenes. “When I watch my first film, I feel very proud to see the love the audience gave it. But I also question the gender bias in it. Some of the dialogues and the moments that seemed strange, when I look at them now, I think, ‘What was I thinking then?’ “I was new to cinema then. I was allowed to make mistakes,” Karan said. He recalled how Shabana Azmi called him up and talked him out of gender politics.

Describing the character played by Shah Rukh Khan as a hypocrite, Karan Johar said, “Since I was writing the dialogues, that character came from me. He falls in love with a hot girl and when the girl he doesn’t like becomes hot, he falls in love with her. Was he just looking for good-looking girls? It was all my writing. I didn’t realise then that I was showing a certain ideology. I just wanted to make a blockbuster film.”

Acknowledging that everyone wants to give blockbusters, Karan Johar said that now he is trying to put things in films that make sense. For this, he gave the example of his last directorial film ‘Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani‘. He explained how we are showing some ideology in it. “As the years pass, you become what you want to be. Your thoughts, your ideology should be reflected in your work. Especially when your characters are set in today’s world. I had a lot to say, and I have expressed it through Rocky and Rani,” he said.