In 2007, Ayushmann Khurrana was a radio jockey trying to cross over into acting. At an awards ceremony he asked Karan Johar for a number. The number was real; the door behind it, he later recalled, was not open.
The story surfaced again as Khurrana’s latest release, Udta Teer, finds its footing at the box office. It is the kind of memory that reads as a footnote but functions as a map: a successful outsider’s first brush with the gatekeeping that defines so much of Hindi cinema’s casting conversation.
A call that ended at the gate
Speaking on Koffee With Karan, Khurrana said he dialled the landline number the morning after the ceremony. When he asked to speak to Karan Johar, the person who answered told him the production house did not audition “outsiders and newcomers”.
“I gave you the right number. That was very sweet of me! I must’ve thought that you have potential,” Karan Johar responded.
Khurrana’s own account is more ambivalent. The call did not get him through to the filmmaker. He also noted that he had to be careful about what he shared publicly, adding that as an RJ he could speak far more freely.
Why the memory still travels
The exchange is small, but it carries a familiar weight. The film industry’s early filters are often social before they are professional: who knows whom, who is considered an insider, who is allowed to audition in the first place. Khurrana eventually built a career anyway. That makes the 2007 reply less a defeat than a story about persistence moving past a closed circuit.
Johar’s version matters too. He remembers the gesture, not the barrier. That gap between giving a number and being reachable is exactly where career-making opportunities often get lost.
Udta Teer’s Sunday climb
As the anecdote circulates, Khurrana’s current release is climbing. The spy comedy Udta Teer, co-starring Sara Ali Khan, recorded its strongest single-day India net collection on Sunday, according to Sacnilk.
- Sunday India net: Rs 8.10 crore, up 11.7% from Saturday
- Saturday India net: Rs 7.25 crore
- Shows on Sunday: 6,020
- Worldwide gross so far: Rs 27.58 crore
The jump gives the film momentum heading into the week. For an actor who was once told he would not be auditioned, the numbers are not just commerce. They are a quiet reminder that early rejection does not set a ceiling.
Source: The Times of India
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