Three decades into a filmmaking career, Karan Johar is voicing a concern that many in Hindi cinema discuss quietly: lead actors are no longer limiting themselves to performance.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter India, the filmmaker and current host of JioHotstar’s Koffee With Karan described actors who stop narrations midway to ask whether a character is “alpha” or “front-footed” enough. He said he has also been asked, “What is your VFX budget?” and challenged over casting with, “Why should we take this actor? Why not that actor?”
Johar’s summary of the shift is blunt:
“They want to do everything… but act.”
Johar offered Saiyaara as a counterpoint: a film whose commercial success rested on an empathetic, non-alpha lover. In his reading, the very kind of character actors now question has already carried a film.
The expanding checklist
In Johar’s account, actors increasingly expect involvement in functions far beyond acting:
- Questioning VFX budgets and asking which actor gets cast
- Demanding sign-off on campaigns, trailers and posters
- Becoming, in his words, box-office gurus, trade analysts and perception setters
He added, “I’m flummoxed with people’s insecurities.” The surprise, he said, is not just the questions but how often filmmakers say yes to avoid stress. “Now I feel many of us as filmmakers have been deeply complicit in the creation of this monstrosity.”
One hit, many imitations
The herd instinct troubles him beyond casting. He pointed to Dhurandhar as an example of distinct craft and background score that, in his prediction, will soon be imitated. His caution: “But every film cannot become that.”
He said the missing ingredient is “good old-fashioned instinct”—the simple logic of liking a film and wanting to do it. “If there was math, we would all be chartered accountants, not filmmakers. We are storytellers. Can we just tell our stories?”
The experience exception
Johar was careful to separate earned experience from runaway input. If Shah Rukh Khan has an opinion, he said, he will “bow down in respect” because Khan’s experience supersedes his. If Amitabh Bachchan tells him anything, it will be his way for the same reason. The difference, for Johar, is not stardom but knowledge and reputation built over time.
For everyone else, the question remains the one he raised: when does collaboration become interference?
Source: The Hollywood Reporter India
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