Karan Johar left Bachchan home after offering Amitabh K3G, returned for his meeting with Jaya Bachchan: ‘Didn’t want her to think…’

He said in a conversation with designer Prabal Gurung, shared on the Gold House YouTube channel, “The film was my first success, and coming back home, I couldn’t realise what had happened. I started writing my second. One morning, I woke up, I looked at my dad and said, ‘I want to work with Mr Bachchan, Mrs Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor’. My father looked at me thinking ‘daure pad jaate hain (I’d lost my mind)’. He said, ‘Beta, you should make one film at a time’. I said, ‘They’re all in one film’.”

Karan revealed that he went to offer the film to each actor on the same day, and started with the Bachchans ‘out of seniority’. He also said that after meeting with Amitabh, he left their house, drove around for a few minutes and returned for a meeting with Jaya Bachchan. He said that he did this because he wanted to treat her as an individual, and not as a part of a package deal. Karan recalled that Shah Rukh agreed immediately, and Kajol became emotional when he went to meet her. Kareena, on the other hand, only wanted to know about her role. “This is going to be an iconic part,” she predicted after Karan’s narration.

Kareena was right; the actor is still remembered for playing Poo, who was designed along the lines of Alicia Silverstone’s character in Clueless. Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham turned out to be the biggest Bollywood hit of 2021, ahead of memorable films such as Lagaan, Dil Chahta Hai and Gadar.