Karan Johar is one of the biggest movie director and producers of the Indian film industry today. He can be spotted in front of the camera, behind the camera, on television chat shows, in fashion shows, in magazines, he is ever-present! He is one of the few celebrities who has a good equation with all the fraternity members of Hindi cinema, every actor’s dreams to do a film helmed by him.
The ace filmmaker made his directorial debut in 1998 with “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” and starred Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Rani Mukerji. The movie also featured Sana Saeed, Farida Jalal, Anupam Kher, Reema Lagoo and Archana Puran Singh. The movie was a massive hit at the box office which reportedly collected over Rs. 100 crore across the world and still loved by the fans to date.
The movie introduced to a new culture of Friendship Day in our country (India). The movie took us to the rollercoaster ride of emotions such as romance, love and friendship among the youth and the growing up.
The movie also boasted of iconic dialogues such as ‘Pyar dosti hai … agar woh meri sab se achchi dost nahin ban sakti, to main usse kabhi pyar kar hi nahi sakta … kyun ki dosti bina toh pyar hota hi nahin … simple, pyar dosti hai.’
The other being, ‘Hum ek baar jeete hai, ek baar marte hai, shaadi bhi ek baar hoti hai … aur pyar ek baar hi hota hai.’ There hardly anyone who doesn’t recollect this dialogue especially a 90s kid.
Karan Johar during the interaction at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne revealed that he didn’t have a script when he signed Shah Rukh Khan and said that, “I had no script, and just had a scene in my mind, which I narrated to him. He bought into my bullsh*t! I told him if you like this one scene then I will narrate the entire film to you, which was completely a lie… Tabu, Urmila (Urmila Matondkar), Aishwarya (Aishwarya Rai) turned me down, and Ash was the only one who was polite to call me back. It took months to cast for Rani’s part after Aditya Chopra recommended her.”
He further added that “Dharma Production has come a long way since then. As a producer, we have supported films such as “Raazi” and “2 States” that highlight the strength of female characters. We get less credit for the kind of films we make now or produce. We are still tagged only as mainstream, which isn’t true,”
The movie released 21 years today and Karan Johar took to the social media to express his heartfelt gratitude for all the love and the milestone this movie received. Student of the year director wrote, Firsts are always special! The cast, crew, music & the heart & soul of this film was all in the right place❤️ Thank you for making this journey a timeless one even after 21yrs! #21YearsOfClassicKKHH @iamsrk @itsKajolD #RaniMukerji @BeingSalmanKhan @apoorvamehta18 @DharmaMovies
On the work front, KJo will once again don the director hat after a gap of 2 years since his last film ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’. The director project is titled ‘Takht’. KJo during recent interaction gave an insight into what the fans can expect from the movie and was quoted saying that, “This is the film that’ll get me nervous. I’ve not been nervous in the other experiences because they’ve always been about people I know. But I don’t know these people. To get into the heads of Shah Jahan, Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb, I had to do a lot of reading, researching, soul searching to understand their minds about their ambitions, failings, highs and lows in the 16th century. It’s not something I can comprehend easily.”
The movie will feature star cast which consists of Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Bhumi Pednekar, Vicky Kaushal, Janhvi Kapoor and Anil Kapoor. As per the latest update, the shooting of the movie will commence in February next year and the shooting of the film will take place in Italy.
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