From 'unsuitable boy' to 'unafraid boy': Why Karan Johar is refusing to grow up
If there has been much fun and banter over Rahul Gandhi remaining a 'youth leader' in his forties, Bollywood has definitely not got its due in carefully preserving its man-children.
Salman Khan, in his fifties, is still the bad ‘boy’ of Bollywood; 46-year-old Karan Johar is now the self-proclaimed ‘unafraid boy’.
Two years ago, he was ‘An Unsuitable Boy’, as claimed by his autobiography, which contained explosive secrets like how he lost his virginity after the release of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, etc. So, from an ‘unsuitable boy’ to an ‘unafraid boy’ — we love how the acclaimed director refuses to part with his boyhood.
As the teaser of Koffee with Karan Season 6, to be premiered on October 21, released, we find a boy (really a kid) coming up with uncomfortable questions. He is asking random people whether they are boyfriend-girlfriend, whether the nose of an actress was real, etc.
As we wonder how he's getting away with all those politically incorrect questions, we find out that the boy grows up to be Karan Johar, with a coffee cup in his hand (from which he reportedly sips diet soda, not coffee, during the show).
The infamous chat show appeared on television in 2004, and soon became the hive of all Bollywood gossip. Something happens to the guests as soon as they sit on that couch that all their guard falls off and they start speaking their minds — and the TRPs never have to look back.
It was this show that gave us invaluable information, like Salman Khan was still a virgin in 2016, Alia Bhat used to think Prithviraj Chauhan was the president of India, Rani Mukerji thought Preity Zinta should learn to talk less, Kareena Kapoor considered John Abraham as expressionless and the list goes on.
The show is practically so old that it has seen then-Bollywood couple, Shahid Kapoor-Kareena Kapoor, together as guests, then Shahid Kapoor and wife Mira Kapoor, and now there are popular demands to bring Saif and Kareena’s son Taimur on the show.
Getting popular or odd pairs on the show, and making them say outrageous things, has been the USP of the show. The questions are framed in such a manner that there can’t be any easy escape.
But then, we can’t say that the show is scripted because the greatest showdown in the history of the show took place when Kangana Ranaut slammed Karan Johar on his own couch by calling him the ‘torch-bearer of nepotism’. It was not the first time that Karan had to bear the brunt of the guests’ sense of humour, but the Kangana episode was different and will go down in the history of Bollywood as a watershed moment.
That the show is coming back after such a royal snub must be the reason why Karan likes to call him ‘an unafraid boy’ this time — but has he anything to be afraid of?
Last season, the guests got gifts hampers which included brownies, Kohler vouchers of Rs 5 lakh, a French press, personalised roasted coffee, Merlin levitating orbital speakers, candies and chocolates, oh, and apart from the media footage for days.
Who won’t like to be roasted a little for all that?
What's to be afraid of?