Karan Johar, who made his directorial comeback last year with 'Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani', has talked about being in a jealous state once in his life. He also shared the inspiration for his hit film ‘Student of the Year’. Karan Johar recently appeared on ‘The Faye D’Souza Show’ where he talked about how he changed from a ‘jealous’ person to an accepting one.
Karan Johar was questioned about his definition of success. According to him, box office numbers used to be quite important. He said, "There was an inherent anxiousness and hyperness of doing the numbers."
Karan Johar on Comparing Himself With Other Filmmakers
Karan Johar candidly brought up the topic of jealousy and how he changed over the years. He shared, “I've been through that journey of jealousy - of like competitiveness, a massive ambition. That ‘oh he made a better film than me’. Those were jealousy.”
He distinguished between the two emotions and acknowledged that envy had the potential to inspire, but jealousy had negative consequences. “Envy is when I really want to emulate something you've achieved. I want to get there because I've acknowledged the brilliance of your achievement and I want to get there. That's what I wish. But, jealousy is when I don't want you to have it and I don't want you to get where I think you're getting to. I'm wishing you not very good things. That's jealousy and that's not right,” Karan explained.
He added, “I've been to that phase where I've been jealous of other filmmakers because they did more. If their films made more money or their films are more award winning or whatever. Then with life, you realise, you kind of reach a point in stage of your life where you've seen it all, done it all, and then you feel like what really is it about.”
Karan Johar on Making 'Student Of The Year'
Karan Johar recalled, “I made a film called ‘Student of the Year’ which was the opposite of what I intended to do with ‘My name is Khan’. There were many filmmakers who very politely or rather not so politely said why did you direct this movie - it's not a film about anything really. It was just High School Musical.”
Karan Johar reflected on the sense of joy and appreciation he had when directing Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra and the satisfaction he gained from the experience. He said, “It gave me so much joy. I was so happy I was working with newcomers. They were always on time. There were three new faces and they were listening to me like I was like Mr Know It All. I love that feeling of walking where you feel like you're the most accomplished on that side and prior to that, I was Shuk Rukh Khan, who's the legend of Indian Cinema. You're always in awe.”
He added, “I relished it. The whole experience of being liked. Everyone looking at you. You have to act it out, do everything and everyone looking at you. I had so much fun. It did well. It created three movie stars. I'm really excited but I didn't win one award. I didn't even get nominated. I did and that was it,” he said.
Karan concluded, “It was the first time I felt like a pressure was lifted off me. I feel like now I can fly I can do everything I want to because now I'm no longer running for gold now I'm running for Joy.”