New Delhi: Koffee With Karan has platformed Bollywood’s candid confessions and controversies for over two decades. With its ninth season, the show is nearing its home stretch. Its host, Karan Johar, has revealed that he had taken up the show to cope with his father Yash Johar’s death.
“It started as a distraction, yes. It started as a distraction from my emotional loss at that time because I had to do something, work towards something; there was no movie I had written then, there was nothing to get to,” Johar recalled in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter India.
Over the years, Koffee With Karan evolved into one of Bollywood’s most talked-about celebrity chat shows, with its rapid fire rounds and celebrity gossip making headlines as actors got comfortable on the Koffee couch. But it’s not the same anymore. Johar said that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get celebrities to speak freely on the show.
“I think it started becoming very difficult for celebrities to come on the show and really speak the way they did initially because the eyeballs on them and the deconstruction of what they were saying, holding on to every word, PR nightmare, social media trolling… it had all started happening in the last two seasons,” he said.
Johar also addressed the online commentary surrounding celebrity couples and their relationships, particularly the trolling that followed Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh, and more recently, Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna after their appearance on his chat show. He criticised social media users for going beyond expressing opinions and attempting to dictate how couples should conduct their relationships, while also dragging their families, who were not even on the couch.
“Everyone’s entitled to an opinion. But when you start telling them what to do in that relationship, I have a very big problem. What do you mean leave each other, don’t be with each other? Who are you? Are you a counselor? Are you a lawyer? Are you a member of their family?” he said.
Defending the couples, Johar said they should not be judged for being honest about their personal lives.
“They are a wonderful couple… absolutely in love with each other. They are just beautifully in love… They were just being honest about their lives. Since when should honesty be judged? You should be appreciative of someone’s honesty,” he added.
The 54-year-old filmmaker also spoke about wanting to return his attention to filmmaking, saying he hopes to direct at least three feature films before turning 60.
“I want to tell more stories as a filmmaker. I’m 54 today and I told myself when I turn 60, I want to leave at least three directed films… I want to have at least directed three feature films at 60,” he said.
“I should proudly say that there were three films between 54 and 60, and that won’t physically be possible if I have other things happening in my life,” he added.
(Edited by Aakriti Handa)