Filmmaker confesses to lying most of the time, says most of us do for fear of hurting others.
Mayur Lookhar
He is among the more respected and sane voices in the Hindi film industry. From Salman Khan to Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to Alia Bhatt, Karan Johar is liked by all and sundry. He does get involved in the odd Twitter banter with Ram Gopal Varma, but that does not frustrate him. You will never hear him criticize his friends/colleagues from the film industry. In short, KJo, as he is called, is the quintessential nice guy, one who rides high on his goodwill and does not finish last.
Isn’t that a bit too sweet? A trifle too nice? Truth be told, Karan Johar is faking it. Don't take our word for it. The filmmaker himself says so. In his latest blog on ndtv.com, Karan Johar has confessed to lying all the time.
"Yes, I am a liar. A compulsive, chronic liar. And I will lay good odds that you are too,” wrote KJo, challenging every reader.
The most common lie, not just with Johar but as seen by the media, is that most artistes never find an single flaw with their own or another’s film. According to Johar, it has become difficult to tell the truth even about a shoddy trailer. And this lie is repeated, with the one who is praised lying in his thank-you text.
“Because you cannot be completely honest all the time. You cannot, or you will hurt people's feelings. I mean I cannot ever tell the truth when I walk out of a film and I overcompensate. (I have a problem. I'm Miss Congeniality in my head. I love to be loved.) So, now, if I don't say enough at the preview, then I have to tweet about it with many, many exclamation marks. Sometimes I feel I should praise it just enough, because I like that film barely that much, but then I think they might think that I haven't liked it at all. And I'm so overburdened with their impression of what they thought I thought that I'm tortured! So I lie. And lie and lie and lie,” the filmmaker wrote.
Johar even confessed to lying about an actor’s beauty, pointing to the frozen botoxed eyebrow. We wonder whose brow it was, but he is not telling.
Fellow filmmakers, actors, Johar even confesses to lying to his mother. The only time Johar is honest, if he is to be believed, is when he sits on the pot, which he cheekily refers to as his chamber (pot) of truth. The filmmaker can lie to the world but never to himself.
After this brutally honest write-up, it is anyone's guess what KJo’s buddies like Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor Khan must be thinking.
