The debate around star kids always finds its way back to the Koffee With Karan couch and so it did on the finale episode of the 8th season as well. The show's host Karan Johar shared his honest reaction about Zoya Akhtar launching Suhana Khan, Agastya Nanda and Khushi Kapoor in The Archies (all the actors are from film families). Karan Johar has quite a bit of a reputation for launching star kids in the Hindi film industry and his latest guests Danish Sait, Tanmay Bhat, Sumukhi Suresh and Kusha Kapila didn't forget that. Danish Sait asked KJo, "Honestly, what is more hurtful? Her (Kiara Advani) calling you uncle or the fact that you did not get to launch the star kids because Zoya Akhtar did it in The Archies."
Karan Johar replied, "So I want to say that also was a bit like... I felt like my crown was taken away. Like... see for the crown to be taken away, the queen died...But here the queen was alive. And yet, suddenly Zoya Akhtar claims it. And I even told her, should we do a kind of an event where like the crown is... Because I am like, you have 3 bonafide kids from the film families that are in your movie. My best was 2 in one film. She kind of beat the record. Student Of The Year was 2, Dhadak was 2." KJo launched Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan with SOTY and Janhvi Kapoor and Ishaan Khatter in Dhadak.
Karan Johar added, "Like, I have never had more than 2. Now we are like really trying to make the outsiders be the insiders." Sumukhi Suresh asked him, "You want to be the new launcher of only outsiders?" To this Karan Johar replied, "That is the new strategy." "Only outsiders," Tanmay asked the filmmaker again. "No, I mean like talented people. It doesn't matter where they are born."
The debate on nepotism started on the Koffee With Karan couch itself after Kangana Ranaut labelled Karan Johar as the "flagbearer of nepotism," when she made an appearance on his chat show in 2016.