New Delhi: Karan Johar is an established name in the film business thanks to his many significant movies. In a recent interview, he spoke up about his former parner and mentioned how his film ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil,’ starring Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, and Aishwarya Rai, helped him get over a breakup. Johar emphasised how the film served as a catalyst for him to get beyond that difficult time.
In a chat with Mid-day, Karan Johar said that he was uncomfortable at first since the film's protagonist has a terrible conclusion, representing the anguish he felt through his own breakup. The awkwardness, he said was initially, "because his character dies." “The character obviously went through a fictional arc as well, but it was cathartic for me to tell that story because I felt that really helped me get over that love situation,” Karan said.
Karan further shared, “Anyone who has been through one-sided love, ektarfa pyaar, that heartbreak… I saw the worst version of myself, not as a human being, but I was pitiful in that zone. When you stare at your phone waiting for it to ring, when you want that message and that message changes your day, when your heart really hurts – it’s a physical pain, it’s not just symbolic, it’s painful – and you wake up with that anxiety, and when you see that person with somebody else and it breaks you into a million pieces… You realise that love can make you and break you and tear you apart.”
Karan said that, despite receiving negative reviews from certain critics, the film was a big hit with the GenZ. “I feel it strongly with the generation of today, who really take their love seriously. We call it the Tinder generation, the swipe right-swipe left generation, but people are really falling in love. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil had a polarising last act, but that concept of crazy love really resonated especially with Gen Z kids. I’m far from Gen Z, I found this crazy love in my late 30s and early 40s, and it just went on for years. But it gave me a film, it gave me closure, and it has now given me a lot of perspective of never to go back in that zone again.”
Speaking about his ex, Karan mentioned that this person is still very much a part of his "ecosystem" and that they are "family" to him.