Karan Johar, present at The Indian Express Adda in Mumbai, dismissed the notion of living under fear in the entertainment industry. Karan Johar said that he believes that "filmmakers make the movies they believe in." In recent years, Bollywood has been targeted for all the wrong reasons. Following the untimely death of Sushant Singh Rajput, the industry has been vilified by a certain section of the audience. The "Boycott Bollywood" noise was loud enough to disorient creative minds. Moreover, there were not too many hits in the Hindi film industry in last year. Amid such negativity, have the creative minds felt frightened or stifled? Karan Johar said at the event, "Creative people are not afraid. They are not afraid to tell the stories they want to... We are sensitive, not afraid."
Karan Johar added that there are agencies to help directors to keep check on his content. He added, "Constraints have always existed. Filmmakers have always wanted to make films that are sensitive to issues and that's perhaps what the country is sensitive to. Filmmakers now have a legal department who will tell you not to go down a certain path. So there's check and balance happening."
Earlier, during conversation with Sucharita Tyagi, Karan Johar opened up about how he dealt with trolls and how it affected his mother Hiroo Johar. The filmmaker also confessed that he is now comfortable in his skin and he "has nothing to lose anymore".
Karan Johar told Sucharita Tyagi, "In the last three years, I felt there was a lot of hate that was coming my way and it had really taken a toll on my mom. I saw her literally crumble under that because she used to watch TV channels. She was reading stuff online. She was watching TV anchors screaming and shouting and saying the most godawful things, demonising me for some reason. Then there were people who were kind of writing the same on Twitter and other social media platforms." Amid backlash and hate, Karan Johar quit Twitter as well.
Karan Johar has returned to the director's seat after seven years with Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. His last directorial was Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Karan Johar has directed movies like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, My Name Is Khan. Karan Johar also completed 25 years as a director this year.