Karan Johar was told to leave the country if he wanted to find love, believes humans are ‘meant to be a unit of two’: ‘Rab ne jodi nahi banayi’

Karan shared that at one point, his friends told him to put himself out ‘there’ or move abroad. “And everyone says, ‘Oh, put yourself out there.’ I’m still looking for what ‘there’ is, I don’t know where that ‘there’ is. They are like, ‘Oh, go abroad,’ they say. And I’m like abroad jakar pata nahi what I’m going to find? And abroad where, yaar? I live here. I have a mom and two kids; I have to live here. So I’ve gone through those beats. And I do get lonely. It’s a reality,” he shared.

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Reflecting further on this loneliness, Karan admitted that it often hits him the hardest during his moments of success, simply because there is no one to share them with. Recalling the night he won his National Award earlier this year, he revealed that he had no one to celebrate the milestone with. It reaffirmed a belief he has long held: humans aren’t meant to go through life alone. As he put it, “The love of a partner, the sharing of the ‘nothings’ of your day, or the highs of your life, it’s very different from what you get from a parent, a sibling, or a child. And it’s not about the intimacy or sex, it’s the partnership you form. We are meant, actually, to be a unit of two. You know, real, true love comes from a partner that you have, whether it was the beginning, the origin of man and woman, or man and man, or woman and woman, and whatever the dynamic today is. But we’re meant to be a unit of two, and then we go and create a family. We were never meant to fly solo, no matter what.”

Then, in classic Karan Johar fashion, he added a filmy touch: “We were created in pairs. Aab Rab ne mere liye jodi nahi banayi.  (Now, God hasn’t made a match for me).” He added, “And they say never say never. When that happens, my arms are wide open, like Shah Rukh Khan!”

Karan also spoke about how being around couples often amplifies the sense of emptiness he sometimes feels. “So many times I feel lonely and want to call someone. I have too many friends to call, but they are all married so I don’t want to be a burden or impose myself on them, so I go to all single people because they can understand my situation. New Years are irritating. I never want to go out with couples. And anybody who does PDA in front of me, I feel like killing them. I’m like, ‘Please get a room!’”

Karan Johar last directed Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani, the film that earned him his National Award earlier this year.