Journalism of Courage
As Karan Johar celebrates his birthday today, we revisit his personal relationships with his famous friends, which played out publicly and are stronger for it today. Never to shy away from opening about his life or his friends, Karan is considered closest with Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Kareena Kapoor in the film industry, but at different times of his life, he has had disagreements with them. The relationships survived the differences of opinion, with the filmmaker himself addressing the issues in public. Scroll to read more.
Kajol
Karan Johar and Kajol's friendship hit a rough patch in 2016. It all happened when there was a box office clash between Karan's film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Kajol's husband Ajay Devgn's Shivaay. Karan Johar talked about it in his biography, An Unsuitable Boy. He wrote, "I wouldn’t like to give a piece of myself to her at all because she’s killed every bit of emotion I had for her for twenty-five years. I don’t think she deserves me. I feel nothing for her anymore."
"I’ve been told by my friends that it’s still my hurt talking but I’m so indifferent to the situation now, what with everything that’s transpired. There was still a bit of me that wished we would get back to what we had, but that one-word tweet that she put out – that was the most humiliating thing she could have done for a person who loved her deeply. That broke me. Once it broke me, it angered me and then I went into indifference," wrote Karan. (Photo: Karan Johar/Instagram)
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Kareena Kapoor Khan
Karan Johar and Bebo share an strong bond but that too had its challenges. Karan Johar talked about his fallout with Kareena Kapoor Khan in his biography, An Unsuitable Boy. A part of it read, "My first problem was with Kareena. She asked for too much money and we had some kind of fallout at that time. I offered her Kal Ho Naa Ho, and she asked for the same amount of money that Shah Rukh Khan is getting. I was very hurt at that time. Later on, I called her, she didn’t take my call, and I said we are not taking her." The role was then offered to Preity Zinta. (Photo: Kareena Kapoor Khan/Instagram)
Karan Johar and Kareen were reportedly not on talking terms for more than nine months. Karan shared in his book, "Kareena and I didn’t speak to each other for almost a year. For a year, we looked through each other at parties. It was very idiotic. She was a kid; she’s a decade younger than me." He dsays in his memoirs, "We were releasing Kal Ho Naa Ho in November. We had shot the film in June, July, August and in September I had to shoot the songs, make the promos and so on. So, I had to head back, while my father continued the treatment in New York. That was the time Kareena Kapoor called me. It was August. We had not spoken for nine months. She called and said, ‘I heard about Yash uncle.’ She got really emotional on the phone, and she said, ‘I love you and I am so sorry I haven’t been in touch. Don’t worry’." Things went fine not only personally but professionally too. Kareena has worked in several films produced by Dharma Productions, like Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kurbaan, We Are Family, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu and Good Newwz. (Photo: Karan Johar/Instagram)
Shah Rukh Khan
Coming to SRK, in his book, Karan Johar admits to being 'hurt' that Shah Rukh Khan skipped Koffee With Karan. In his book, Karan said, "Yes, there was definitely a distance between us in recent year but that was because we were not working with each other. There's no other reason." KJo wrote in An Unsuitable Boy, "He (SRK) was hurt that I didn't work with him. I was hurt that with Student of the Year, there was no acknowledgement from him, there was no love or support given to me. Then it just grew. It was like he thought 'after everything I've done for Karan' and I thought 'after everything I've done for him'. We both felt like we had contributed to each other's lives so tremendously. It was just two people sulking." (Photo: Karan Johar/Instagram)
Describing how things changed between them, Karan wrote, "Suddenly, we had become formal with each other... He was not backslapping me like I wanted him to. And I was not cracking that odd joke like I would have...From being so close it transformed to: 'Could you please call me when you have a minute?' Once, just last year, he got so angry with me. I called up his manager and said, 'I really need to meet Shah Rukh.' He called me and said, 'When did you start calling my manager?' I said, 'Oh, I didn't want to disturb you.' He said, 'Achha?' And he fell silent." (Photo: Karan Johar/Instagram)
In his biography An Unsuitable Boy, Karan Johar shared more about Shah Rukh Khan, who he considers an "older brother," and said, "Shah Rukh is a very possessive friend. I think I may have hurt him when I made a film without him. And I think I got hurt because when I did, I felt he didn't give me that paternal or fraternal feeling that I had from him otherwise. I think we were two hurt friends for no reason."
Karan revealed that the "simmering silent distance" between them was addressed when they met at the success party of Piku. Karan wrote, "I hugged him instinctively and said, 'I've missed you.' And he said, 'You've no idea how much I've missed you.' We had this moment." Shah Rukh also added that "when the origin of the friendship is so strong, it just cannot die." (Photo: Karan Johar/Instagram)
Anurag Kashyap
In an interview, Anurag Kashyap shared his most memorable moments during his spat with Karan Johar. He shared that there was a time when they didn't see eye-to-eye with each other. The director stated, "Karan Johar gave an interview calling me a psychopath. Till then we had not met. I called him a fat kid, who still thinks he is in school. Remember we had this fight in Mid-day. I also said something about Anil Kapoor in the interview that became a headline. But people always knew I was childlike." (Photo: Zoya Akhtar/Instagram)
Karan and Kashyap later sorted out things. In 2018, the two came together to direct four short film segments for Netflix, titled Lust Stories. The other two directors were Zoya Akhtar and Dibakar Banerjee. Karan also acted in Anurag's Bombay Velvet. (Photo: Zoya Akhtar/Instagram)
