MUMBAI: Filmmaker Karan Johar spoke about the ‘terrifying’ experience of feeling ‘one-sided love’ for another person, and said that he would never wish it on anyone.
In an interview, Karan said that his 2016 film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil was born out of this inner turmoil, and that the movie helped him move past a particularly difficult period in his life.
Karan said that he was in this situation for seven to eight years, and that he based a character in the film on this person, who isn’t from the film industry.
On Sit with Hitlist on mid-day, Karan was asked about this phase in his life, and he said that the person in question is still a part of his ‘ecosystem’, and that he considers them to be family.
Asked if they ever watched Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Karan said, “It was initially awkward because his character dies. The character obviously went through a fictional arc as well, but it was cathartic for me to tell that story, because I felt that really helped me get over that love situation.”
He continued, “Anyone who has been through one-sided love, ektarfa pyaar, that heartbreak… I saw the worst version of myself, not as a human being, but I was pitiful in that zone. When you stare at your phone waiting for it to ring, when you want that message and that message changes your day, when your heart really hurts – it’s a physical pain, it’s not just symbolic, it’s painful – and you wake up with that anxiety, and when you see that person with somebody else and it breaks you into a million pieces… You realise that love can make you and break you and tear you apart.”
Karan said that the movie met with polarised response, but the emotion of its final moments resonates with younger audiences especially, because they feel very passionately about the idea of love.
“I feel it strongly with the generation of today, who really take their love seriously. We call it the Tinder generation, the swipe right-swipe left generation, but people are really falling in love. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil had a polarising last act, but that concept of crazy love really resonated especially with Gen Z kids. I’m far from Gen Z, I found this crazy love in my late 30s and early 40s, and it just went on for years. But it gave me a film, it gave me closure, and it has now given me a lot of perspective of never to go back in that zone again,” he said.
Asked if the person in question was ‘indifferent’ towards Karan’s feelings, or if they were being ‘hot and cold’, the filmmaker said a vehement no.
“The person was completely sensitive to me, and went through every beat with me with utmost sensitivity. So, I can’t even hate, I can’t be indifferent. And today, that person is very much a part of my family, he’s a part of my ecosystem… Fortunately, this person is not from the industry, and that actually helped, because it gets very messy when it’s from the industry,” he said.
Karan said that he has signed up with a dating agency in London that caters to influential clients, and that he has been on a handful of dates, both in person and virtually, but they haven’t resulted in meaningful relationships.
Karan returned with his first feature film since Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, some months ago. It became a big box office hit, and earned him some of the best reviews of his career.
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Credits - The Indian Express
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