Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
There’s a dialogue in Vidya Balan’s The Dirty Picture where she explains the three elements that decide a film’s success — entertainment, entertainment, entertainment. If there is a living embodiment of that dialogue, it’s Karan Johar’s Koffee with Karan avatar. This side of the filmmaker’s personality may make you believe that film industry is an uber-glam party but you have to earn your seat at the table. You can also be born into it, but that is a discussion for another day.
Koffee with Karan first started in 2004 and as the years have gone by, Karan has leaned into the campiness of his show and the character he plays on it. In the initial seasons of the show, when Karan was in his early 30s, he interviewed many of his contemporaries, and a few senior actors and while the show was always meant to be sensational, there was a certain restraint that came with being on an English general entertainment channel. In the last few years, however, he has thrown caution to the wind and has fully turned up the volume on his fashion, the bling on his sets and even the persona he exhibits on his show, especially the side where he digs deep for salacious gossip. The earlier restraint has given way to abandon, with shock and awe becoming de rigueur on what is India’s ultimate gossip fix. From being an acquaintance who likes to pry but is pretending not to, his avatar on the show has turned fully into a nosy neighbour who just won’t rest until all of their questions are answered.
The Karan we see on the show is a character he has created for himself. It’s kitschy, it’s campy and it’s exactly what his audience has come to expect out of him. The avatar presented here feels so real that Karan almost sounds like another person when he appears on other talk shows and speaks about cinema and his business, both of which he is passionate about.
In the last couple of decades, the approach towards making a celebrity chat show has changed completely. Earlier, the stars had limited avenues to speak their mind, but social media has been a game-changer in more ways than one. In such a world, a show like Koffee With Karan would have but a limited role to play. But the show has managed to stay relevant and find a new audience, thanks to Karan.
In the earlier years of the show, Karan was the peacemaker but also ignited some fires. He was the one who employed them all, but also appeared like he was one of them. Decades later, he is still the one who employs them all but he can now see the frothy nature of his show. And it’s this self-awareness that has made his shenanigans hilarious.
Love it or troll it, but a show like this exists, and has this kind of abandon. Karan, in an earlier interview to The Hindu, had mentioned how the hate signifies that the people are deeply invested in his show. “A lot of the hate sometimes is entertaining, because I wonder why they are cursing it so much, but also watching it? I read the threads on Twitter and other portals; reels and reels of discourse that people are having about KWK… and I feel very moved and touched. I’m like, that’s a lot of time you have taken out of your lives to write so much on something you hated so much,” he had said.
At this point, if you are still taking Koffee with Karan seriously, you might be the only one because even Karan is aware that the show is an elaborate sketch where even the guests are aware that they are in a skit.
Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
