Karan Johar is Bollywood’s royalty. His production house Dharma has a net worth of 200 million Indian rupees. His best friends are Shah Rukh Khan and the Bachchans. He hosts his own show which is quite famous and often quite controversial. He is credited with creating the next generation of big stars like Alia Bhatt, Siddharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan.
Johar was recently under fire at his own show from Kangana Ranaut — someone who made it into Bollywood all on her own merit and sheer talent. However, reading his biography, ‘An Unsuitable Boy’ (co-written with Pooja Saxena) enables one to look beyond fiery tirades and convenient labels that were thrown his way.
Johar’s beginnings barely sound Bollywood-ish, let alone royal. In the book, he narrates the tale of his grandfather who had a sweetmeat shop in Delhi.His father, the late Yash Johar, moved out of Delhi and came to Bombay to find work. Growing up, Johar recalls his life had moments of glamour — when he would be friends with the Bachchan kids or Farhan and Zoya Akhtar. But he was a quintessentially chubby kid at school with little or no remarkable achievements. He was also someone who grew and learned how to be confident instead of being someone who was naturally gifted and slated to become a super star in his own merit. He recounts his childhood failures with honesty and pain — a fat chubby boy who couldn’t tie his shoelaces, couldn’t do well in most academic subjects, and wanted to run away from boarding school because he missed home.
In the age of hyperactive and overzealous entertainment reportage, the truth becomes an uninteresting side-effect of actual stardom.
Johar recently had twins via surrogacy and his response at Ranaut’s rejoinders got him quite a lot of criticism as well. But his book’s honesty and his childhood memories tell you that there’s more to the man than what meets the eye. He is successful and at a privileged position — but he came from a production house that was failing. His father had given up on films and was running an export firm later on. And if it were not for a few incidents here or there, Johar would not have been the man we all know him to be now.
Johar has dedicated an entire chapter to Shah Rukh Khan and his family. His relationship with Khan exudes sincerity. Their bromance was the subject of many a rumour and Johar’s book lays these to rest. He speaks of Shah Rukh as a brother and as a close confidant. You see it when he mentions Shah Rukh the first time. It is an encounter of curiosity mixed with deliberate distance; yet later on, during the sets of Dilwalay Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, was when he remembers truly connecting with Shah Rukh within a creative space. He enjoys a strong relationship with the world’s biggest star today — and it began with a scene Johar wrote in that film. Without expressing it in those exact words, you are made to realise that Johar got to be where he is because of his talent and not entirely because of his father.
What is surprising is that there is little mention of him casting Fawad Khan in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil or in Kapoor and Sons. Perhaps it was the backlash he was already facing post Uri Attacks that may have led Johar to edit this out pre-emptively. Maybe we will never know — or maybe we’ll have to wait for India and Pakistan to make love not war to find this out. I must point out here that I am a Karan Johar fan. I have loved all his films and probably have half of them memorised. His cinema defined a generation of weddings and romance. It is also surprising that he takes no credit for this. There is also a preppy Farhan Akhtar vibe (as was seen in Kal Ho Na Ho, post Dil Chahta Hai) and it just goes to show you that Johar takes what works, sprinkles a little bit of his own magic, makes it something completely new that becomes a brand of his own. If Imtiaz Ali is the brain of Indian cinema and Rajkumar Hirani is its soul — Karan Johar has to be the heart.
The biography is a pleasant read and not as ‘shocking’ as many Indian reporters made it out to be. It was an honest effort on Johar’s part, an outpouring of memories, and a synchronised version of his life laid out for his fans and perhaps, his haters as well, to let the world know that he wasn’t always Karan Johar — director, entrepreneur, and celebrity show host. There was a time when he was Karan — fat, unhappy and unsure of what he wanted to do with his life. This book is a must-read for all Karan Johar fans — and for those who have any inclination towards Bollywood at all.
The writer is a psychologist and based in Dubai. She currently runs her own YouTube channel, The Review with Mahwash focused on cinema and TV in the subcontinent. She tweets @mahwashajaz_