Conversation with Karan

He’s back to having coffee and conversation and a third season of his chat show on Star World. Koffee with Karan goes on air on November 7, 9 pm. Known mostly for his chat show skills than his primary identity of a director, Karan Johar who also does many things else loves to chat up his celebrity friends. Ask him if he’s repeating guests from his earlier two seasons and he says, “But there are just 40 people in the industry! You have got to repeat them.” The first episode will feature Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and her better half and going by the glimpses of it, there are hardly any ‘secrets revealed’ (the marketing plug the channel is using). The Bachchan couple is known to be boringly diplomatic. How easy or difficult was it to get them talking? “Well, Abhishek is a dear friend and Aishwarya is a global entity just as the show is pretty global. I know the dynamics of privacy and I am not here to offend my guests or make them uncomfortable. There is a certain line I have to follow. I didn’t ask them questions I knew would make them uncomfortable. It was their first interview together since their marriage three years back and that in itself was good for me. I share a very casual and close relationship with them. I knew certain things were out of bounds for me but that’s fine as I said I am not here to offend anyone.” As for the ‘secrets’, KJo says it’s a marketing strategy of the channel and if at all anyone has spilled the most beans, it’s him. “My mom is going to find out a lot of things about me! I have spoken a lot of rubbish on the show,” says the host-cum-director-cum-producer who likes his coffee milky and sweet. Ask him if his guests ever call him up after the episode and request to edit a particular portion and he says, “Oh yes and understandably so. You know, they say a lot of things at the spur of the moment and I understand that. Why, at times I have called them up and said, ‘Listen, I don’t think you should be saying this on TV, can I edit it? Because as I said, I am not here to enter into anyone’s private lives, not her to sort out issues or mend bridges between two people.” So he would rather not think of bringing Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan together or Salman and Katrina Kaif together. Even Aamir Khan who he’s reportedly being friendly with and seen with having lunches, has not yet won his confidence completely to agree for a conversation over ‘koffee’. Though he says, “I would go down on my knees to have someone on my show but if they are not comfortable, there is not much I can do.” And so he hopes to have ‘koffee’ someday with dear friend Kajol’s reticent husband, Ajay Devgn. Quiz him if his stars are better behaved on the show because they know they are dealing with Karan Johar, an influential producer-director and he shakes his head. “Not true at all. They are well behaved anyways. Yes, but they are better looking on my show for sure,” he says, wryly. Johar had tried doing another chat show type for good friend Aditya Chopra for a Sony show. But that hardly worked. “I don’t know what went wrong there though must say we never aimed it to be like a Koffee with Karan show, it was more a nobility based show. It was more serious, more philanthropic. It was an endeavour to change lives. The show went beyond just getting a star and chatting them up.” Finally, every newspaper, channel etc has space dedicated exclusively to films and film stars. His show has enjoyed two seasons and still counting, what is it about the Hindi film industry that still seems to attract the audience? “I would say they get that voyeuristic pleasure when they see someone chatting up a Bollywood star, like a fly on the wall overhearing a lounge chat. The way you would watch a Bigg Boss…” Candid Karan On Ram Gopal Varma “I think till the time I move on to another director the media will keep talking about the two of us having back and forth arguments via the media.” On Sonam Kapoor and Deepika Padukone shooting together for an episode “The young stars today are more cool, comfortable and civil. Though must say, two actresses can never be friends.” On who he thinks is the ‘Khan for all seasons’ “Shah Rukh Khan” On one guest he didn’t know what to expect from “Rakhi Sawant. I didn’t know what I was getting into. She is a fabulous guest though can’t say if she is cut out to be a host.” One star he definitely wants to have ‘koffee’ with “Rajnikanth! He is a legend. He is God and I hear he is averse to the idea of giving interviews but will definitely try to get him on my show.” On his favourite episode “Got to be one with the Kapoor family. It was like a ‘Kapoor Chat Show’. I wasn’t asking them anything, they were just talking with each other. I loved being part of it. They were the most happy, lovable, warm people I had ever met.”