Karan Johar has opened up about the challenges of making his 2006 film ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’, revealing that his late father, Yash Johar, may never have allowed him to make a film about infidelity, writes NDTV.
Speaking at the Marrakech International Film Festival’s Conversation Series, where he also presented a gala screening of his production ‘Homebound’, Karan recalled the difficulties of making the controversial drama.
“It was a very complicated film to shoot. In the mainstream, this was one of the big-budget films dealing with the topic of infidelity. For Shah Rukh Khan, who is the perfect husband, brother, lover, son, to step outside the boundary of his marriage and have an affair – we didn’t know whether the audience would accept that character or that relationship,” he said.
Karan said he and Shah Rukh discussed the character regularly as they struggled to make the affair believable without losing the audience’s sympathy.
“It was very difficult every day. Shah Rukh and I used to discuss it, and he would tell me, ‘I don’t know how to make myself likeable.’ I told him, ‘You are Shah Rukh Khan – how can someone not love Shah Rukh Khan? You are love.’ We had complicated scenes every day that leaned towards infidelity. We were challenged as director and actor. I didn’t know how to justify them,” Karan recalled.
He also remembered facing criticism for choosing Shah Rukh for a story that challenged conventional ideas about marriage. Karan described the decision as a leap of faith and said some people believed he had “lost the plot”.
“I remember getting a lecture from a big movie star in the lobby of a hotel, where he asked me, ‘How can you do this to Shah Rukh? How can you endorse infidelity?’ I told him, ‘I can’t endorse something that already exists. There’s no such thing as endorsing infidelity – it exists in everyone’s lives.’ I said I was happy and proud of it: ‘Thank you for your advice, but I won’t be taking it,’” he said.
Karan said his father, who died shortly before he directed the film, had been his “moral compass”. He recalled Yash Johar as a traditional and conservative man who held Shah Rukh in the highest esteem.
“He was my moral compass. In many ways, I don’t think he would ever have allowed me to direct this film because he was a very traditional, conservative man. And he held Shah Rukh in the highest esteem. When he passed away, I felt that governance was no longer there, so I decided to break all boundaries and barriers and make what I wanted to make. It was me growing up. I felt grown up at the end of this experience,” Karan said.
Released in August 2006, ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’ follows Dev, played by Shah Rukh, and Maya, played by Rani Mukerji, as they struggle in their respective marriages before finding love in each other. Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Preity Zinta and Kirron Kher also featured in key roles.
