Dear Karan Johar, Who Are You To Ask Anyone To Leave The Industry?

Calling me a huge fan of yours will be an understatement. Your movies have changed my perspective towards life and I seek incredible amount of inspiration from your reel and real life stories. I’m one of those fans who was sitting with a pencil to underline life quotes and experiences while I read your book. But today, after what you’ve expressed in an interview, I stand as a disappointed fan.

I often become a butt of jokes when my friends call me a biased Karan Johar fan/supporter when there are controversies around you. But today, I agree that you have indeed made an objectionable statement which puts you in the spotlight.

You’re definitely not the only one in the gossip nexus who passes judgment on people. We speak, we forget and sometimes with no intention to hurt anyone. Sometimes it’s just our perspective towards what we see and how we see them.

But, Kangana was perhaps the first person who came back to you and honestly told you what she felt about your comments on her, in your face. Alas, she had a photographic memory of the same when she said, “You have been the driving force in my life. If it wasn't for all the rejections and mocking, I wouldn't have been here. Karan, you made fun of my English on this couch. But I haven't held this against you. Somewhere, these things drive you. I am not trying to fit in.” It takes great amount of courage to accept this on national television. You might argue that she did it for the TRPs, but so do you! 

People made tremendous hoopla around your movie Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, to an extent that you had to make a public apology for taking creative freedom in your hands, an apology you yourself regret giving. An apology we never needed, because you had shot the film way earlier than the surgical strikes happened.

With so much money running in your name and the stars of the film, unconditional support from friends in the industry, you made it and the film did better than all of us had expected. You felt victimized, didn’t you? If anyone says you played a victim’s card in that almost teary-eyed face, how will you feel?

You recently said, “I am done with Kangana playing the woman and victim card. I am DONE! You cannot be this victim at every given point of time who has a sad story to tell about how you’ve been terrorized by the bad world of the industry… leave it.”

You too were terrorized by the same bad world and industry. Did someone ask you to leave? Did you leave? No! You don’t have to!

Kangana is a survivor Karan. A girl who had to make her way into the world without a God father, a girl who helped her sister in coming out of a devastating acid attack, a woman who has made her space in the industry without any Khan. You can’t say she’s playing the victim’s card. Survivors and winners reach where she is today.

She was involved in controversies with the biggest stars, people accused her of witchcraft and she was ousted out of movies for various reasons. How many people from the industry came out to support her, or even state the fact that we shouldn’t be commenting without knowing stories of both parties?

It’s as simple as waking up with a set of circumstances, truths, and realities about life every day. You wake up with your problems and find your own solutions. Another person wakes up every day to find a solution to their problems which might be victimizing them, but at least they’re not giving up! How easy is it to say that she’s playing a woman’s card? May be not in your world Mr. Johar, but in India, being a woman is the most challenging truth even in 2017. A woman, who has an opinion, and speaks her mind is often considered a loudmouth, ill-informed, alpha female.

She called you the ‘flag bearer of nepotism’ and you gave a very valid answer to that when you explained, “When she says ‘Flag bearer of Nepotism’, I just want to tell her, I am glad she knows what it all means. I don’t think she has understood the entire meaning of the term. What is nepotism… am I working with my nieces, nephews, daughters, cousins? And what about those 15 filmmakers, who are not from the film industry, who I have launched and who did the movies. That we’re not going to talk about! Tarun Mansukhani, Puneet Malhotra, Shakun Batra, Shashank Khaitan… they all come from no film background. You give these people film careers and they have a platform to stand on and that’s the reverse of nepotism.”

You Karan, stand at a stature where you do have the power and knowledge to change people’s lives for good.  Your help, direction, and advice have catapulted many careers in the industry which is great! If powerful people don’t help when needed, such power is and void. But, with the kind of retaliation you’ve shown against this brutally honest comment of Kangana, you’re not heading the right way when you say she can leave.

Let’s end with the fact, that for people who read your book and now know your story, they too can say that you’ve played a victim’s card right? But, really did you? Wasn’t this supposed to be a documentation of your life incidents and not a victim’s diary? Time to reflect on what you’ve said, Karan.

You nurture dreams, don’t you? You don’t shatter them! 

Still a loving fan…