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Filmmaker Karan Johar will return to the director’s chair after a seven-year gap with the romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. Karan cemented himself as a populist director with the blockbuster hit Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, which was released in 2001, a major year for Bollywood cinema. On Karan’s 51st birthday, here’s a throwback to the time when he panicked ahead of the film’s release, because he’d seen how impactful that year’s two other hits, Lagaan and Dil Chahta Hai, had already been.
In his autobiography, An Unsuitable Boy, Karan recalled that he didn’t think Lagaan was any good when he first watched it, but was surprised when it became a major hit. The entire time leading up to K3G’s release, Karan was in a jittery mood, and then, after it released to blockbuster response, he was depressed because it didn’t get the sort of appreciation that Lagaan did. All he could think of was the awards it didn’t win, and the critics who didn’t like it, he wrote.
Before the film’s release, Karan even visited a ‘celebrity psychic’, because his father had hinted to him that they could lose their house if the film doesn’t perform. Plus, Karan had been given the then-record budget of Rs 50 crore, which, he wrote, would be the equivalent of Rs 500 crore when the book came out. He told the psychic, “My picture is going to flop and we’ll be moving back to our old house, and I’ve ruined it all.” She told him that he’ll be fine. He became increasingly panicked as the day of release inched closer, and began making promises to himself. “I said to myself, if everything goes well, I’ll give up non-vegetarian food, I’ll walk to Siddhivinayak. Idiotic things…”
Karan was shocked when, on opening day, he saw queues form outside the Liberty theatre, of people who wanted to watch K3G. But then, he was hit by another wave of self-doubt. “It was as big a hit as Gadar. It did double the business of Lagaan. But it never got the respect at that time. I remember Screen Awards had a Jury Award, which was an industry award. My father’s rakhi sisters, Waheeda aunty and Sadhana aunty, were on that jury, and I was not nominated in the Best Director category. My father took it to heart. I said sc**w it, I’m not attending Screen Awards, I’m leaving the country. I went away. I was like a sulking child who didn’t get his candy. That entire year, I was very depressed,” he wrote.
He continued, “I thought nobody’s going to remember Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham because Lagaan became the toast of the town. That’s what happened that year, you see. Today, nobody remembers that Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham came out that same year. Now it’s on television every week. Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham has been the biggest success for Dharma Productions… But that year it broke me, and I am still getting over what I went through that year. In some ways, it brought me down to earth. I came crashing down, and maybe that was the best thing, because had that not happened, maybe I would’ve become some crazy person.”
Karan went on to develop a fondness for the film, but in the year that it came out, it brought him a lot of misery. The experience also prompted him to change his approach to cinema, which is how, as a direct response to Dil Chahta Hai, he wrote Kal Ho Naa Ho. His next film, Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, stars Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh. It’ll be released in theatres on July 28.
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