If I can gain from launching SRK's son, why won't I: Karan
Karan Johar, in a blog post on nepotism, questioned why he would not launch Shah Rukh Khan's son if he can gain from it. "We're not NGOs! We are businesses with bottom lines and budgets...[I]t's a balance of commerce and art, and both matter," he added. Karan further said he also launched Sidharth Malhotra, who has no lineage in Bollywood.
Karan Johar is fed up with the allegations of nepotism. It all began on his talk show Koffee With Karan where Kangana Ranaut called him the "flag-bearer of nepotism". This opened the floodgates to endless debates about the ethics behind casting star-kids in films at the cost of denying chances to deserving industry outsiders.Now, Karan Johar has opened his heart on the matter in his latest blog post. Starting off by saying that he cannot handle the 'nepospasms' (A condition that, KJo describes, arises from the fear of the word 'nepotism'), Karan Johar goes on to defend his casting choices and adds that if he can be accused of nepotism, everyone can be."While we're on the subject, may I point out that while we can (and have) put the star on screen, we cannot make the audience arrive. So if it is a nepotistic world, we're not the only ones guilty of it. Taken a look at any entertainment website recently? They're full of star kids. It's all about Sara (Ali Khan) and Jhanvi (Kapoor) and Aryan (Khan) and Aarav (Kumar). They step out and they're photographed, they're the ultimate clickbait," Karan Johar wrote on Ndtv.com.Karan Johar added that his nepotism was a "a result of easy access to an exceptional resource.""Yes, I have launched Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan, and, yes, maybe you can say nepotism played a part. You can argue that there was proximity and I leveraged it, that there were relationships at play which were factored. David Dhawan was, and is, a friend. I took his son on as an AD (assistant director) as a favour to that friend. And then I saw talent. And then I platformed it. When it came to Alia, I wasn't even talking to Mahesh Bhatt! I've even gone on record saying we had issues. We had auditioned 5,000 people and she was one of them. If there was anyone better than Alia Bhatt, she would have been in the movie, but there wasn't. She just stood out. Maybe her name played a role in why, but I think her body of work already proves that's not it," Karan Johar wrote.Karan Johar went on to defend his right to cast whoever he wants provided his casting decision brings audience in the theatres."We're not NGOs! We are businesses with bottom lines and budgets. And tomorrow if I want to launch Shah Rukh Khan's son because he's Shah Rukh Khan's son and I believe I can gain from it, why won't I? I run a company, it's a balance of commerce and art, and both matter," Karan wrote.Karan Johar ended his blog post by saying that if he is to be blamed of nepotism, then that is fine, but he is not the only one who can be accused of it."I'm not alone. You are doing it too. With your headlines, in your political parties, in a thousand industries across the country" - with these words, has Karan Johar brought an end to the 'nepotism' debate? Probably not.