Filmmaker Karan Johar has said that he has a policy where he doesn’t tell the ‘truth’ if he has disliked a particular film at a preview screening. He said in an old interview that nothing can be done a day before the release, and it’s best to not deflate another filmmaker’s morale. But, he revealed, his contemporary Ashutosh Gowariker doesn’t believe in the same mantra.
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In an interview with Komal Nahta six years ago, Karan narrated a personal story about how a phone call from Ashutosh left him stunned on the eve of his film Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham‘s release. This was the year of Lagaan, Karan said, and Ashutosh was flying high after the film’s success.
Karan said that over the years, he’s become a pro at preview shows, and has developed tactics to deal with tricky situations where he has to meet the filmmaker but hasn’t liked their film. He said that he can also gauge, through body language, when one of his films has disappointed viewers at previews. He recalled the story of how Ashutosh Gowariker let him know that K3G was, in his opinion, a rubbish film.
Karan said, “It was the year of Lagaan… It was also the year of Dil Chahta Hai, the year of Chandni Bar, of Gadar… It was a defining year in Hindi cinema. And I was vulnerable at that time, it was a Rs 51 crore film, which is equivalent to Rs 150 crore now. It was humungous, the expectations, the fear, the anxiety, the insecurity…”
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A day after the previews, Karan said that he got a call from Ashutosh. “I picked up the phone with a great amount of excitement. He said, ‘Karan, where are you? I just saw your film! I didn’t like it at all’. I thought the earth below me would open up and I would jump right in. I said, ‘Oh, you didn’t like it?’ He said, ‘Not at all!’ I asked, ‘Nothing worked for you?’ He said, ‘No, I was so disappointed. I loved your first film, and this one had no story…’ I asked about the screenplay, and he said, ‘No, that didn’t work for me’. I thought I was going to collapse.”
Karan said that the encounter made him resolve to never do this to another filmmaker. And he tried to instill the same thought in Ashutosh, whom he described as a great friend. Some months later, Karan said, he received a call from Ashutosh, who admitted that he was wrong about the film.
K3G featured an all-star cast that included Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan. The film was a massive box office hit.
