Karan Johar rips apart actors who demand Rs 20 crore but can’t even deliver Rs 5 crore opening: ‘Delusion is the one disease with no vaccination’

Filmmaker Karan Johar doesn’t seem to hold back in speaking his mind in public, and as someone at the Centre of Bollywood, he has a lot of opinions about every facet of the industry. In an appearance on a new podcast, Karan spoke about several hot-button issues, such as the declining box office revenue of Hindi movies in 2022, bloated star salaries, and how big budgets can often spell doom for films. Karan appeared on the Masters’ Union podcast, where he admitted that Telugu is the ‘most lucrative’ regional industry in the country. In the last few years, the Telugu language industry has been dominated by the films of SS Rajamouli, with whom Karan partnered up on the Baahubali movies and more recently, Brahmastra.

He also revealed that Student of the Year, the film with which he launched actors Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, and Siddharth Malhotra in the industry, ultimately lost him money. “Yash Chopra told me, ‘A film never fails, a budget does’. Like Student of the Year. I made a hit film, but lost money.”

Karan said in a recent interview that it no longer makes financial sense to launch newcomers in the film industry with theatrical releases because even though people flock to see celebrities in real life, that doesn’t translate to ticket sales. He also repeated something that he has said previously, that some movie stars have deluded themselves into believing that they are still box office draws.

He said, “I might be murdered for saying this, but if you are opening to Rs 5 crore and you are asking me for Rs 20 crore, how is that fair? Delusion is the one disease that has no vaccination.” It was in 2018 when Karan first addressed this issue, which has only magnified in the post-pandemic era. “They’re all crazy! Crazy, with a capital ‘C’. They’re cuckoo, many of them. Just because their two films do well suddenly it’s all me, myself and I,” he had said.

In 2022, Karan’s Dharma Productions was involved in projects such as the big-budget fantasy film Brahmastra, the action-sports fil Liger, the crime-comedy Govinda Naam Mera, the drama Gehraiyaan, the romantic drama JugJugg Jeeyo and the thriller series The Fame Game.