Karan Johar recalls fainting in college while dieting; says his mother called him ‘fat’ and ‘large’: ‘I am not on Ozempic…’

The filmmaker recalled that while his father Yash Johar used to speak in his support and wanted him to become an actor, it was his mom Hiroo Johar who called him out for his physical looks. “My dad was in delusion land about me. He thought that I had puppy fat, it will go away, he is so handsome. But, my mother used to disagree and say, ‘What are you saying, Yash? He is so fat, so large.’ He wanted me to become a hero, and my mother used to roll her eyes saying no way he is capable or should be a hero. She always used to call me out. Punjabi moms are not always deluded,” he shared.

Karan continued, “When I decided to lose weight for the very first time was when I had to go to college and wear coloured clothes. I realised that you blend in uniforms in school, it’s a mass of one type of clothing. You reach college and you see everyone is way thinner than you. Somehow, that really shook me up.”

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Revealing how he struggled with, and often failed at, various diets, Karan Johar said, “I have done General Motors diet repeatedly in the past. Once I did it for a month and I fell sick. On the other hand, I also did Atkins diet, I still remember that I was in my Accounts class during college. I fainted in that class because I was on this diet. That was the end of diet, my mother banned it, she had no idea I was doing it. It is high protein, only protein. You could have a nine egg cheese omelette, only protein, no bread and nothing. You could have fried chicken, but it was harsher.”

During the conversation, Karan denied taking Ozempic for weight loss and revealed, “Contrary to what people think that I took ozempic or whatever, I am quite not. What happened is, there were few intolerances that I discovered when I went to Vivamayr (a medical health resort). When I went back again, I did my Kinesiology test and I realised that I am acutely gluten and lactose intolerant. I actually didn’t realise… I was eating roti and not rice. But in reality, rice and potato are my friends.”

The 53-year-old added, “My thyroid levels were all over the place, so they put me on a thyroid medication. I didn’t know that I had a problem. I always used to wonder that I am doing whatever I can to lose weight but it’s just not happening. So now, I have removed gluten completely… like almond milk works very well for me. What I have also removed is sugar. The weight just went down with that and the thyroid medication. What I do need to is get on to workout. I swim and play paddle ball currently. I used to play at Mannat earlier.”