Karan Johar, the talented filmmaker cum producer has recently been in the headlines for the host party that he hosted in his house. The party was suspected to be drugs friendly and this is what brought him in the headlines. But, now once again, the Kalank producer has opened his views on the sensitive debate on nepotism debate and mentioned that he hasn’t been given any credit for introducing young filmmakers in Bollywood.
Ever since the beginning of the debate of nepotism since 2017, Karan Johar has constantly been under scrutiny for his choice of actors in his films. It has been so raged that his launch of two star kids in Student Of The Year in 2012- Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan, has even been tagged as the “flag-bearer of nepotism”.
Appearing in a video interview, Karan Johar, the owner of Dharma Productions, opened up on the same saying that he has not been given any credit for introduce aspiring and new filmmakers to Bollywood.
When questioned on if he feels that there is a responsibility to give an opportunity to talented outsiders, Karan said, “We have introduced 21 debut directors. Out of which, I can say, 16-17 are not “nepotistic” young filmmakers. They are not from the fraternity or the industry. They are completely from outside.”
He further added, “Why don’t I get the benefit of that; my production house is launching kids who are directors/filmmakers. They are making major motion pictures and leading the game. They are not from the industry. Why don’t I get credit for that? Why do they discredit some of the actors who are from (the industry)? Why do I have to justify it at first? I think they are talented enough to face the camera and may be, one thing can say is that they get easy access, but after that they have got a journey ahead.”
Talking about Varun Dhawan, he stated, “Varun Dhawan was my assistant (in My Name Is Khan), he worked very hard in that film.”
Releasing a few statements on Alia, he said, “Alia Bhatt was somebody that I had seen as a child and wasn’t completely in my zone. She did legit audition with 500 other girls (for Student Of The Year). Out of which about 380 were not from the industry and Alia was just one of them and she got no preference. I would have cast anybody. It was not that she was in the zone that time and anybody heard about the paparazzi clicking her outside kitchen garden.”
