WILL THE REAL KARAN JOHAR PLEASE STAND UP?

You can dismiss him and his cinema as froth, but can you actually imagine Bollywood and India without Karan Johar? Probably not

- ANANYA GHOSH

If you think of Karan Johar, it is likely that your social mediafogged brain will conjure up an image of a man dressed in ostentatious clothes, sipping coffee on a couch and dishing out salacious Bollywood gossip. But chances are that much like in his carefully curated movies, it is a character he has created exaggerating a tiny part of himself to entertain you. “Koffee with Karan gave the world a perception that is not entirely me. It is a fun, irreverent talk show. But people started judging my films because of this perceived persona. I am not taken seriously as a filmmaker. There is a certain flippancy because I wear fashionable clothes. The perception of me has taken a beating because of Koffee with Karan but now I have stopped fighting it. I am neither defiant nor apologetic,” says Karan as he sits for the interview while getting his hair trimmed. The man has an easy charm about him. At 52, he is fitter and, looking more dapper and confident than ever. But today the quintessential KJo flamboyance seems a bit subdued. “I am in my monochromatic phase,” he quips.