Many people in the film industry are ‘living in delusion’: Karan Johar

Karan Johar, who gave a new lease of life to his father’s production house ‘Dharma Productions’ with his films ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, ‘Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham’ and ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’ (as a writer-producer), recently shared how despite all the fame, success and praise, he thought he was more fortunate than talented. He said it was not until his 2010 movie ‘My Name Is Khan’ that he believed he was talented or a good director.

“It was after ‘My Name Is Khan’… I believed in me and that I knew my job,” he said.

Speaking to Komal Nahta on his ‘YouTube’ channel ‘Game Changer’, Karan Johar said, “‘My Name Is Khan’ was beyond my talent and outside the scope. It was beyond my ability and style. I personally felt this was a film that Mani Ratnam should have directed. I took it up as a challenge. It was at this moment when I saw a couple of shots and scenes from the film and believed that I should continue my job as a director.”

In the same interview, Johar also took a dig at industry insiders who are ‘living in delusion’. He shared, “I am a realist and I am not deluded. Delusion is a disease for which there is no vaccination. If only I had that vaccine, I would have given it to several people in this industry. They are all living in delusion. We should all write letters to these deluded people, but we can’t as this is an extremely small industry. Democratic.”

Speaking about himself, the filmmaker said, “I am not deluded. I am very much aware of my films and know the reasons why some of them worked and some of them didn’t. I am very aware of my mistakes. I am 80 percent realistic. Sometimes I don’t understand these people. I don’t understand whether they are lying to themselves or they believe that they made a great film. In reality, it is not. We need to understand if a film doesn’t work or if it is bad. They say people didn’t understand it.”