New Delhi: Actors questioning filmmakers about VFX budgets, casting choices, and demanding their characters be sufficiently ‘alpha’ have become a growing concern for filmmaker Karan Johar.
He said the increasing involvement of actors in decisions beyond their performances reflects a larger problem in Bollywood.
In a conversation with journalist Anupama Chopra for The Hollywood Reporter India’s InFocus series, Johar spoke about actors questioning him about aspects of filmmaking that he believes should not concern them.
“I am being asked, ‘What is your VFX budget?’ How is that your problem? Will I make a tacky-looking film because I want to make money off a bad-looking film? No, I’ll obviously do my best,” he said.
Johar also criticised actors for questioning the casting of their co-stars, arguing that once they have agreed to be part of a film, the rest of the casting should not concern them.
He said actors increasingly want to become “box office gurus”, “trade analysts”, “perception setters”, campaign makers, trailer cutters and poster makers, rather than concentrating on their performances.
“I’m surprised and shocked that they want to do everything but act. Like, but when are you acting?” he asked.
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The obsession with ‘alpha’ characters
The 54-year-old filmmaker said he has noticed a growing preference among lead actors for dominant and aggressive characters. He recalled how actors have begun interrupting narrations to question whether their characters are sufficiently alpha to make the film box-office friendly and appeal to audiences.
“I’ve heard lead actors stop narrations and say, ‘This character is not alpha enough,’ or ‘This character is not front-footed enough,’” he said.
Johar also recalled actors asking whether a film had anything “deeply rooted”, questioning what they meant by the term.
“Rooted in a good script, I hope. Rooted in great content, I hope. Like, in what do you mean? We’re making a Hindi-language film or an Indian film which is rooted in the language and in our syntax of our cinema, isn’t that enough?” he said.
To make his point, Johar cited Shah Rukh Khan’s character Raj in Aditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), one of Hindi cinema’s most celebrated romantic heroes, who is far from the aggressive, dominant protagonist that actors increasingly seem to demand.
“Was Shah Rukh Khan front-footed in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge? He was the most beautifully passive character. He said, ‘I will not fight your father. I will take your father’s blessings and your parents’ blessings and only then will I marry you.’ Isn’t that the biggest love story of our times?” he said.
Johar also argued that the commercial success of films such as Kabir Singh (2019) and Animal (2023) should not lead filmmakers to believe that audiences only want aggressive male protagonists.
He pointed to Saiyaara (2025), in which Ahaan Panday plays an empathetic lover rather than an alpha male, as an example of a romantic film finding box-office success without following that template.
“He is not alpha… eventually he’s a green flag, and that is a bigger hit than many other love stories. So then what is the logic? What are you following?” Johar asked.
(Edited by Maryam Hassan)