Karan Johar
Johar at the 61st Filmfare Awards in 2016
Born	Rahul Kumar Johar[1] 25 May 1972 (age 47) Bombay, Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Actor, director, producer, screenwriter, costume designer, television host
Years active	1998–present
Children	2
Parent(s)	Yash Johar Hiroo Johar
Relatives	Yash Chopra and Baldev Raj Chopra (maternal uncles)
Awards	Full list
Signature

Karan Kumar Johar (born Rahul Kumar Johar, 25 May 1972),^[1] often informally referred to as KJo,^[2] is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter, costume designer, actor and television personality who works in Hindi films.^[3] He is the son of Hiroo Johar and the producer Yash Johar.

Johar made his directorial debut with the widely seen romance Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), which earned him the Filmfare Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay. His next two films were the ensemble dramas Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham… (2001) and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), which were both very successful in the overseas market. His social drama My Name Is Khan (2010) earned him his second Filmfare Award for Best Director. The 2018 spy thriller Raazi won him Filmfare Award for Best Film. These, along with the several successful films he has produced under the Dharma Productions banner, have established him as one of the leading director-producers in Hindi cinema.

Johar has also ventured successfully into other avenues of the entertainment industry. He hosts a television talk show, Koffee with Karan, a dating show What the Love! and a radio show Calling Karan, and appeared as a judge on competition reality shows Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, India’s Got Talent, India’s Next Superstars.

In 2020, he was conferred with the Padma Shri award, the fourth-highest civilian honour of India.^[4]

Early and personal life

Karan Johar was born in Mumbai, India to film producer Yash Johar, founder of Dharma Productions and Hiroo Johar. He studied at the Greenlawns High School.^[5] In his autobiography, An Unsuitable Boy, Johar recounts that he took the entrance test of the all-boys boarding school, The Doon School in Dehradun, but scored a zero in mathematics. This led the then headmaster Gulab Ramchandani to write a very “emotional letter” to Johar’s mother, declining admission.^[6] After Greenlawns, he attended H.R. College of Commerce and Economics,^[7] both in Bombay (now Mumbai).

Johar started his career in entertainment industry as an actor, he played the role of Shrikant in the 1989 Doordarshan Serial Indradhanush. As a child, he was influenced by commercial Indian cinema: He cites Raj Kapoor, Yash Chopra and Sooraj R. Barjatya as his inspirations.^[8][9] For a time, Johar followed numerology, creating film titles in which the first word and a number of others in the title began with the letter K. After watching the 2006 film, Lage Raho Munna Bhai which was critical of numerology, Johar decided to stop this practice.^[10]

In February 2017, Johar became father to twins (a boy and a girl) through surrogacy.^[11] The twins were born at Masrani Hospital in Mumbai. Johar named his son Yash – after his father; and his daughter Roohi – rearranged from his mother’s name Hiroo.^[12][13]

Film career

Director

Karan Johar entered the film industry as an assistant director on Aditya Chopra‘s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), which is regarded as a landmark in Hindi cinema. He then made his own directorial debut with the blockbuster romance Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998). The first half of the film centers on a college love triangle between an insensitive boy (Shah Rukh Khan), his tomboyish best friend (Kajol), and the prettiest girl at the college (Rani Mukerji), while the second half centers on the now-widowed boy’s attempt to reconnect with his best friend who is now engaged to marry another man (Salman Khan). The film became a major blockbuster at the box office and received mostly positive reviews from critics. Writing for Planet Bollywood, critic Anish Khanna commented that “Karan Johar makes an impressive directorial debut, has a good script sense, and knows how to make a film with S-T-Y-L-E.”^[14] It won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. It swept most of the major awards at the 44th Filmfare Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and all four acting awards.

Karan Johar with Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol at a film promotional event.

Johar’s next directorial venture was the multi-starrer family drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham… (2001). The film starred Amitabh Bachchan as an egotistical rich industrialist, Jaya Bachchan as his compassionate wife, and Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan as their two sons. It also featured Kajol and Kareena Kapoor as sisters from a lower-class family who become the love interests of Khan and Roshan respectively. The film became Johar’s second major blockbuster at the box office and received mostly positive reviews from critics. Critic Taran Adarsh commented that Johar “confirms the fact that he is the brightest in film firmament. The premise [of the film] is simple, but it is the storytelling that deserves the highest marks.”^[15]

Johar’s third directorial venture was the ensemble musical romantic drama Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), which dealt with the controversial subject of marital infidelity against the backdrop of non-resident Indians living in New York City. The film’s plot follows a washed-up athlete (Shah Rukh Khan), whose frustration with his wife (Preity Zinta) results in an extramarital affair with a family friend (Rani Mukerji), a schoolteacher who is also unhappy with her marriage to her childhood friend (Abhishek Bachchan). The film was a major success in India and an even larger success overseas. It received highly positive reviews from critics who praised Johar’s departure from the directorial style of his first two films. Rajeev Masand wrote, “Few writers have such solid control over their screenplay as Karan Johar does. Few understand the intricacies of narrative as well as he does. Johar goes from highs to lows, from plateaus to peaks with the ease of a pro. He knows exactly how to turn a seemingly ordinary scene into something special with just that one line of dialogue, or that hint of background music.”^[16] The script of the film which was co-written by Johar received recognition by a number of critics and was invited to be included in the library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Johar’s fourth directorial venture was the social drama My Name Is Khan (2010). The plot follows a Muslim man with Asperger’s syndrome and his wife, played by Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, who live in San Francisco and face racial prejudice after 11 September attacks. The film became a major commercial success, and received rave reviews from critics who praised Johar’s unconventional directorial style. Critic Subhash K. Jha wrote that the film “is a flawless work, as perfect in content, tone, and treatment as any film can get.”^[17] The film won Johar his second Filmfare Award for Best Director.

For his next feature film Student of the Year (2012), Johar chose not to cast established actors for his lead roles and instead recruited three debutante actors (Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan, and Alia Bhatt). The plot revolved around the quest of a group of students who are all gunning for the title of “Student of the Year” at their college. The film was a moderate commercial success and received mixed reviews from critics. Some called it “supremely entertaining and enjoyable,”^[18] while others called it “a film which suffers from the lack-of-a-story syndrome.”^[19]

Johar then teamed up with Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, and Dibakar Banerjee for Bombay Talkies (2013), an anthology film released to celebrate the centenary year of Hindi cinema. Each of the directors made one short film to contribute to the large anthology. The plot of Johar’s film followed a magazine editor (Rani Mukerji) who discovers that her husband (Randeep Hooda) is gay after an interaction with an intern at her office (Saqib Saleem). The film did not perform very well at the box office but earned positive reviews from critics.

Johar’s next directorial venture was the romantic drama film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016). The film featured Ranbir Kapoor as a man dealing with an unrequited love for his best friend, played by Anushka Sharma. It also featured Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as an older woman who engages in a brief relationship with Kapoor’s character. The film emerged as a commercial success and received mixed to positive reviews from critics, who called it “Johar’s most grown-up movie yet.”^[20]

Johar teamed up again with Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, and Dibakar Banerjee for Lust Stories (2018), an anthology film released on Netflix that served as a follow-up to Bombay Talkies. The film was praised for its exploration of female sexuality, a subject rarely dealt with in Indian films. Johar’s segment revolved around a newly married schoolteacher (Kiara Advani) whose husband (Vicky Kaushal) fails to recognize her lack of sexual satisfaction.

On 11 August 2018, Johar took to Twitter to announce his next film Takht, a period drama based in the Mughal era, which will feature an ensemble star cast including Ranveer Singh, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Alia Bhatt, Vicky Kaushal, Bhumi Pednekar, Janhvi Kapoor and Anil Kapoor.^[21] With a screenplay by Sumit Roy, dialogues by Hussain Haidry & music composed by A. R. Rahman, this will be the first film directed by Johar that he has not written himself.^[22] In an interview with Firstpost, Johar stated that Takht would begin filming in September 2019.^[23]

Producer

Johar’s directorial work (with the exception of anthology films Bombay Talkies, Lust Stories and Ghost Stories) has been produced under the Dharma Productions banner, founded by his father Yash Johar and taken over by him after his father’s death in 2004. In addition to his own directorial work, he has produced several films by other directors under the Dharma banner. Many of these films have become major successes including Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Dostana (2008), I Hate Luv Storys (2010), Agneepath (2012), Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013), 2 States (2014), Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), Kapoor & Sons (2016), Dear Zindagi (2016), Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017), Raazi (2018), Dhadak (2018), and Simmba (2018).

Actor

In addition to working as an assistant director on Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Johar was an actor in the film, playing the minor role of a friend of Shah Rukh Khan’s character. Since then, he has made cameo appearances playing himself in films like Om Shanti Om (2007), Fashion (2008), and Luck by Chance (2009).

He made his full-fledged acting debut alongside Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma in Anurag Kashyap’s period drama Bombay Velvet (2015), in which he played the main antagonist. Although the film did not perform well at the box office, Johar earned some appreciation for his performance. Critic Sarita A. Tanwar commented, “The only consolation in the film is Karan Johar who brings a lot of dignity to the character of Khambatta… which is commendable since this is totally outside his comfort space.”^[24]

Ileana D’Cruz, Karan Johar, Nimrat Kaur at ‘KJO For Gehna’ line by Karan Johar

Costume designer

Johar has worked as a costume designer for Shah Rukh Khan on many films like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Duplicate (1998), Mohabbatein (2000), Main Hoon Na (2004), Veer-Zaara (2004), and Om Shanti Om (2007).

Television

Johar is the host of Koffee with Karan, a celebrity-based talk show where he interviews actors, directors, producers, and other prominent members of the Hindi film industry. The first season aired from 2004 to 2005, the second season aired in 2007, the third season aired from 2010 to 2011, the fourth season aired from 2013 to 2014, and the fifth season aired from 2016 to 2017.

Since 2012, he has served as a judge on the reality shows Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa (with Madhuri Dixit and Remo D’Souza), India’s Got Talent (with Malaika Arora Khan, Kirron Kher, and Farah Khan) and India’s Next Superstars (with Rohit Shetty).^[25]

Filmography

As an actor[edit]

Awards and honours

References