In Bollywood Karan Johar at 45 is a one-man industry. The journey of a boy to manhood and his travails and tribulations captured at 30 frames per second, HD colour and Dolby stereo sound. Let the show begin
Karan Johar’s life reads like an open book now, literally. Anybody can pry into and look into the insides of a man-boy who rules Bollywood. The story of the Movie Moghul unfolds in exactly 352 pages and is worth a princely sum of Rupees three hundred and forty-nine on Amazon, everybody’s new bookstore and more. Its Karan’s outpourings on his life penned by journalist Poonam Saxena in a book titled An Unsuitable Boy. Welcome to the world of Karan Johar.
The book traces Karan’s childhood and growing up years, initiation into the film industry, experiences with movie making and helming Dharma Productions. It expands on things like his equations with friends like Shah Rukh Khan, Aditya Chopra and Kajol, and of course, the subject of his sexuality.
Unsuitable Boy is different because it is honest. Karan talks at length about his sexuality, his close friendship with Shah Rukh Khan (there’s an entire chapter dedicated to SRK), him breaking away from one of his oldest friends and so-called lucky charm in films, Kajol. Karan also talks about his battle with depression, and how got to be at peace with himself and his life choices.
The early years
Karan was the only child of Yash and Hiroo Johar. His father was in the export business apart from being a film producer. Being a single child Karan had to deal with the loneliness of growing up alone, taunted for being feminine in his ways and socially awkward. This made him withdrawn into a shell and binge on food which added one more problem to his existing ones – overweight.
The breaking point came when he was sent away to boarding school where his life turned more miserable. The story goes (Karan too has spoken about it) that it was Twinkle Khanna (daughter of Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia) who was at the same boarding and convinced him to run away. But even there luck was not with and he was caught by the school guards and brought back only to be told off by the school principal in front of the whole school at the morning assembly.
That broke Karan’s heart and he returned home. But at home, a distressed mother awaited him which only made matters worse. But one thing he remembers from the long talk that his mother had with him after he returned home was whether he wanted to be just a mediocre person for the rest of his life. That stayed with him.
Soon Karan was back at his old day school. But his life was about to change. Partly by chance he got involved in a club at school and gets picked for an interschool elocution contest (it was here that Aditya Chopra sat next to him as a fellow contender). Young Karan won the big prize; that gave him the confidence that was to change his life dramatically and also a true friend in Aditya Chopra. It is hard to believe when you see the suave, confident, self-assured and almost arrogant Karan of today to imagine him to be a shy and awkward boy.
The next phase of Karan’s life was to bring him on the track that would or could determine his future in films. His closeness with Aditya Chopra and Anil Thadani (who married Raveena Tandon) had a common passion – they were all diehard Hindi film buffs. Karan talks fo how the three would talk about movies for hours in the day. And when the time came for Karan to take over the father’s business, it was Adi who convinced him to assist him with the making of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ). Not only did DDLJ go on to make cinema history, but it launched the careers of many a star on celluloid. From here on there was no looking back – it was the starting of his long friendship with Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri even though his friendship with Kajol predates DDLJ. The superhit film was Karan’s training ground and his launchpad into a career in films. It also lay the seed for his biggest turnaround, the film that would forever place him in the bubble-gum genre and a big hit with the youth and children.
The next few years would take Karan to a new high. He made Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, followed by Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Karan is not shy to reveal the insecurities he faced as a filmmaker while making KKKG. Even as he was shooting his blockbuster, Lagaan released to great acclaim and later earned an Oscar nod. That same year Farhan Akhtar's Dil Chahta Hai also came to the theatres, and Karan writes of how he was struck by how genuinely cool it was. Karan admits to feeling threatened like his own work would not match up, and wanting to make something that had the same authentically cool feel of Dil Chahta Hai.
That came in Kal Ho Na Ho (KHNH) which was scripted by him but directed by a young filmmaker Nikhil Advani. Even while he was busy with his all-time iconic film, his father Yash Johar was diagnosed with cancer and in June 2004 died. It was a shock that would take Karan a while to recover from.
Taking charge of Dharma
Karan would have been happy just with the creative aspect of the movie-making business. But with his father gone, he had to come to learn the business side of it which was not easy. His closest friend from school Apoorva Mehta came to his aid. Apoorva quit his job at the YRF London division to take charge of the financials at Dharma Productions. Today it is one of the most successful production houses in the country. It was a slow process of trial and error. And with Dharma’s growth, Karan too evolved into the Movie Moghul that he is today
Karan the Movie Moghul
There’s no better person to analyse the secret of his success than Karan Johar himself. Karan entered the Big Club of 100-crore profits in 2010 with Agneepath, directed by Karan Malhotra. It posted around Rs115 crore. Since he turned producer in 2003 with Kal Ho Naa Ho after directing two titles under his family banner, the 41-year-old filmmaker has displayed an astute sense of what audiences want to watch, and need to watch. His transformation from secondgeneration filmmaker to a one-man mini studio testifies to the power of family-run companies to teach a few lessons about popular Hindi cinema to the suits flitting through Bollywood.
The Karan Johar name guarantees business today. The Dharma stamp in Bollywood is also the mark and triumph of commerce over creativity. The banner has been able to grasp the aspirations of a post-liberalisation generation and its consumption patterns, also personified by the poster boy Shah Rukh Khan starring in many of the Dharma productions
Dharma has hit upon the formula of dealing with love stories that Indians can identify with. Karan’s got his finger on the movie goers pulse. His publicity skills are excellent and his eye for talent enormous. He has so many newcomers who have gone on to become stars in their own right.
One of Dharma’s trademarks has been its young appeal. Karan’s friend Aditya’s Yash Raj films set up the Y Films which have done exceedingly well to feed Indian audiences with mega hits, but Dharma has veered towards the urban, affluent fun-loving adolescent and young adult who simply enjoy his offering of style and pizzazz. In fact, Karan is obsessed with the youth. Karan was an accident in filmmaking as he had studied BCom and learned French for six years, hoping to go to Paris to further it. So he says that in his youth he did not do anything adventurous and hence the longing for the ebullience of youth which reflects in his films.
Dharma is buzzing with a youthful zest; young people, enthusiastic and creative are encouraged by Karan to showcase their talent. It’s a great training ground for assistant directors some of whom have on to direct films for the boss with aplomb. Karan himself was not too old when he took over Dharma. He was just 32. He was born into a film family but it was by accident that he turned it into a huge business advantage
His father Yash Johar got into film production in the Forties and produced films such as Dostana (1981) and the original Agneepath (1990) with Amitabh Bachchan and Danny Dengzongpa
Karan as a boy was growing up in South Bombay’s spiffy Malabar Hill far from the city’s north where the factory that spun celluloid dream was located. It was a clear divide, the city’s upmarket centre and its growing suburbs. His world was made of people who preferred Hollywood and pop icons like George Michael and Madonna. But Karan himself was drawn to the Bollywood magic, watching a Hindi film almost every day and dancing to filmi songs.
His innate sense of good and bad on screen stood him in good stead. It also worked for him on television – his chat show Koffee With Karan turned iconic holding urban audiences in its spell. He also appeared as a judge on shows like India’s Got Talent and Jhalak Dikhla Jaa. These associations boost his movie promotions— conversations with actors on Koffee With Karan are timed with the release of Dharma movies in which star and others whose films are about to release. He is the master of PR and promotion.
But Karan seems to have had a personal longing to be part of the media too, it was on his bucket list of to-do things in life. He says he always felt he had the ability to say something irreverent things without offending people. And since his job was to speak to movie stars anyway, he thought why not get paid for it too. He was surely having fun and the nation was smelling his brew.
His stylish, suave, witty presence on the small screen could give any professional television anchor a run for ratings but Karan merely enjoys the medium as a break from the big screen and does not want to give into the TRP madness. As he says nonchalantly, “I don’t get the medium and I can’t do it week after week. In any case, I have to take a pill to keep my blood pressure under control. Movies have already taken a toll on me.” His movies have also taken a toll on the cinema going public, they seem to ask for more and more of his youthful tapestry.