There’s been a big shift of concern in the kind of films you are making — whether it is Kurbaan, Wake Up Sid or My Name Is Khan. Is this a conscious transition?
Karan Johar: A few filmmakers — only Adi [Aditya Chopra] and me actually — have been part of a transition in cinema. When Ashutosh [Gowarikar] made Lagaan, he hadn’t catered to the audience before, he had only made a couple of films. He immediately brought in a new sensibility. Farhan’s first film also brought in this new cool. While we had catered to a certain kind of cinegoer’s demands in the 1990s and then saw the evolution of the audience. I feel the need to adapt with the times. I had done a lot of films that were internal experiences, and as a filmmaker to challenge myself I felt the need to do something that yanks me out of my comfort zone. And as a producer I go by the diktats of the young minds I put my faith in — whether it’s Tarun Mansukhani who wanted to make Dostana, a rom-com with a mild edge or an Ayan Mukherjee who wanted to direct a coming-of-age film Wake Up Sid or Rensil D’Silva who chose to make a film on global terrorism. This year we have a quintessential date flick coming up called I Hate Love Stories and the official adaptation ofStepmom. These are not necessarily pathbreaking films but extremely warm mainstream endeavours. For myself this phase is going to stay because I’m in a different headspace from when I made Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (KKHH) and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (KKKG).
Karan Johar: A few filmmakers — only Adi [Aditya Chopra] and me actually — have been part of a transition in cinema. When Ashutosh [Gowarikar] made Lagaan, he hadn’t catered to the audience before, he had only made a couple of films. He immediately brought in a new sensibility. Farhan’s first film also brought in this new cool. While we had catered to a certain kind of cinegoer’s demands in the 1990s and then saw the evolution of the audience. I feel the need to adapt with the times. I had done a lot of films that were internal experiences, and as a filmmaker to challenge myself I felt the need to do something that yanks me out of my comfort zone. And as a producer I go by the diktats of the young minds I put my faith in — whether it’s Tarun Mansukhani who wanted to make Dostana, a rom-com with a mild edge or an Ayan Mukherjee who wanted to direct a coming-of-age film Wake Up Sid or Rensil D’Silva who chose to make a film on global terrorism. This year we have a quintessential date flick coming up called I Hate Love Stories and the official adaptation ofStepmom. These are not necessarily pathbreaking films but extremely warm mainstream endeavours. For myself this phase is going to stay because I’m in a different headspace from when I made Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (KKHH) and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (KKKG).
So these new concerns are not just about adapting to your environment, but also something personal?
Of course it is. Cinema is a reflection of your own state of mind. So I felt different when I directed KKHH and I feel totally different today — whatever you feel will reflect on celluloid and I don’t feel like I want to do something I’ve done before. I felt boredom had crept into my work.
Of course it is. Cinema is a reflection of your own state of mind. So I felt different when I directed KKHH and I feel totally different today — whatever you feel will reflect on celluloid and I don’t feel like I want to do something I’ve done before. I felt boredom had crept into my work.
The last time you and I spoke, you said you wished you could adopt a different name because of people’s expectations of your cinema.
I’m glad I may have kind of broken the shackles of my own perceived image. In media branding when they referred to a KJo film it was associated with terms like gloss, popcorn, glamour, mush, bubblegum, which were almost hurled at me like weapons — I felt like I was slotted too soon which was complimentary in a way but also annoying. You can’t slot me with two to three films, wait for two decades. With Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna I felt there was a shift in the perception, but now with My Name Is Khan (MNIK) I feel there is no way that I can be slotted in a category.
I’m glad I may have kind of broken the shackles of my own perceived image. In media branding when they referred to a KJo film it was associated with terms like gloss, popcorn, glamour, mush, bubblegum, which were almost hurled at me like weapons — I felt like I was slotted too soon which was complimentary in a way but also annoying. You can’t slot me with two to three films, wait for two decades. With Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna I felt there was a shift in the perception, but now with My Name Is Khan (MNIK) I feel there is no way that I can be slotted in a category.
‘I’VE NEVER MADE A FILM I’M PROUD OF’ KKKG is all about me trying to show off, nothing else. It’s me saying, look, I’ve put up this big set; look, I’ve put up this star cast; they’re wearing beautiful clothes, look, look, look. Today I’ve become a school of cinema, whether you like it or hate it. Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna was my attempt to break my own mould. But what I did wrong was blend in some of my old need for opulence and scale and a star cast. I should have stuck to my initial thought, my first instinct, which was to make it an intimate drama of two couples. My gut and my spine is commercial, so no matter what, even while experimenting, I’ll always be mainstream. I sit here and visualise myself in my Armani suit, walking with my mother on the red carpet in LA, entering the Kodak Theatre, sitting in the twentieth row, hearing my nomination, getting the award, going up and ending my speech with, this is for you India. I have it all planned. But I will never make a two-hour film without songs, which might bore my country, just to achieve that. I’ve never made a film that I can proudly say is my film, that I can proudly tell people, did you see Lagaan, I made it. Or, did you see Rang De Basanti, I made it. I haven’t made that film yet, but I will. Sometimes my name hinders a film, because audiences come thinking there’ll be a lovely shaadi song. That worries me. I’ll have to strategise the promotion very cleverly — make it very clear that this is me — Karan. (laughs) Karan Trivedi maybe, or Saxena or Karan Thapar — anything, but not Karan Johar. excerpts PREVIOUS CONVERSATION |
What triggered MNIK for you?
What annoyed me was when intelligent, educated, affluent people talked nonsense. That really riled me. A conversation I had with people I met in New York over dinner upset me. It was not said but there was an undertone of complete racial assault which put me off. I have a problem with generalisation and putting people into boxes. At a political and human level. Even if they’re just saying ‘fat people are sweet’ or ‘short people can’t be trusted’ I have a problem when people make statements like this. You cannot generalise one community or religion, it goes against the grain of humanity. A certain amount of general goodness has been forgotten with the cynicism of our times. I feel very strongly the need to address it as a filmmaker. Addressing the issue of the identity of the Muslim in the modern world was one way to address the human community at large.
What annoyed me was when intelligent, educated, affluent people talked nonsense. That really riled me. A conversation I had with people I met in New York over dinner upset me. It was not said but there was an undertone of complete racial assault which put me off. I have a problem with generalisation and putting people into boxes. At a political and human level. Even if they’re just saying ‘fat people are sweet’ or ‘short people can’t be trusted’ I have a problem when people make statements like this. You cannot generalise one community or religion, it goes against the grain of humanity. A certain amount of general goodness has been forgotten with the cynicism of our times. I feel very strongly the need to address it as a filmmaker. Addressing the issue of the identity of the Muslim in the modern world was one way to address the human community at large.
That conversation triggered off the thought process. Then I went back and researched with various organisations that protect minority rights in America. My story was different then. Then we realised the simplicity of the plot would seem artificial if we went down the typical route. We had to go through a man not of our times, whose mind was not cluttered with what our minds are usually full of. We may have romanticised the character. He has Asperger’s Syndrome which is high functioning autism and he sees life very differently, sees things literally. So he comes from a place of innocence and vulnerability.
It gives a place for the social constructs to fall away
Zarina Wahab’s character — Rizwan Khan’s mother — her philosophy could be extremely simplistic to some and deeply profound to others.
Zarina Wahab’s character — Rizwan Khan’s mother — her philosophy could be extremely simplistic to some and deeply profound to others.
When you were doing this research, did it politicise you, change you?I felt the need to engage myself with what was happening globally. It opened my headspace up to so much. When you do this kind of research the information that you get isn’t just facts, you feel it, you’re associating it with your own film – so it made me passionate towards what was happening in the world.
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