Karan Johar recently expressed his frustration over claims that he helped Alia Bhatt secure a role in 'Jigra'. Earlier this month, a clip from an interview with director Vasan Bala went viral, where Bala mentioned that Karan had forwarded his unfinished script to Alia for review.
Vasan Bala added that he was upset Karan sent the unpolished script, saying he would have formatted and edited it if he'd known it was going to her.
However, the statement was misinterpreted by many on social media, leading to criticism of Karan for allegedly "promoting nepotism." In response, Karan took to Instagram, sharing a post with a quote from I’m Salmiah: “We have to be strong to ensure our life is stable enough to shut some negative people’s mouth.”
Alongside the post, Karan wrote, “Twitter became X and became my X a while ago… I broke up with the nauseous noise and muted the unwarranted angst … but social media is like the Loch Ness monster—it gets to you even when you can’t see it. So I was flooded with Vasan Bala’s interview, which he answered with pure innocence and so much love…”
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Karan continued, “The gross misinterpretation of his comment about me sending the script to Alia without his grammar checks made me laugh initially at the ludicrousness of it all, but now it’s truly annoying me. Vasan continues to be one of my most talented and wonderful collaborators, and if you see his interview and hear his tone, you will totally get it! BUT NO … much ado about nothing is all over the place…”
He concluded by saying, “I fold my hands and tell everyone please hear and read entire interviews before making clickbait assumptions. ❤️! Loads of love to all of you …”
As for what Vasan Bala actually said, during an interview with Tried and Refused Productions, he shared, “I had written a very kachha pakka email, stream of consciousness thoughts… sent it to Karan and 6-7 hours later, he called saying that I have already sent it to Alia, and I was really not happy with it.”
He continued, “I was like, I would have at least done some spell check, grammar check, hygiene, written some very nice hero entry… That email was sent and I asked Karan ‘Why did you do this?’ He said ‘No, no this is how it works.’ Then he said we’ll meet in a couple of days.” Bala also noted that Alia had liked the film from the first half itself.
Vasan later reposted the interview snippet on X, adding, “Karan knew better and can’t thank him enough for the rest of my life for trusting his instincts. It’s the most magnanimous gesture anyone can do to help someone make a film…Trust!”
'Jigra' starring Alia Bhatt and Vedang Raina is set to release on October 11.
