Karan Johar Says He Wasn`t "Man Enough", Recalls Being Ragged In Childhood
Updated on: 25 July, 2025 03:22 PM IST |Shweta Shah
Karan Johar on isolated childhood, being different, and wanting to be accepted
Karan Johar has always been candid and unapologetic about the way he is. He may be conventionally different, but the filmmaker has never shied away from his sexuality. He recently opened up about his `feminine` side, which made him feel different from others.
In a candid chat with popular podcaster Jay Shetty, the director-producer opened up about wanting to be socially accepted for the way he was, undergoing a mentally transformative phase, and having a blessed yet isolated childhood.
For the uninitiated, KJo has often faced remarks for the way he speaks, his dressing sense, and his body language. He even recalled being ragged in his childhood.
Karan Johar`s strugglesome childhood
The Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani director shared a piece of what his childhood was like with Shetty in his podcast. The latter is on an India tour where he will be talking to famous personalities, bringing out their vulnerable side.
KJo recalled, "The first thing I wanted to do was just be. I wanted to belong. That`s the first thing I want to do. I just felt very different from all the other boys my age, all the other kids my age. I think I was just in those days back in the 80s; I didn`t know how to describe my headspace because I didn`t understand what I was. I felt I was different."
Also Read: Karan Johar Slams Film Industry, Says "Herd Mentality" is the Biggest Issue
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"I felt I was different from the others, and I wasn`t able to kind of articulate it to myself, and those were not days that, you know, we could get any kind of counselling, any kind of, you know, visit to somebody who could guide you, help you, or nurture you in that way. Even your parents were giving you all the love, like I was the only child, so I got a lot of love, but I knew I was very different. I was told I was, you know, more feminine than I should be. I walked differently. I ran differently. I spoke differently. My choices in life, my hobbies in life, were different," he shared.
Karan Johar`s love for Bollywood
While the South Bombay kids were growing up on Western cinema and listening to international artists, Karan Johar was drawn to the golden era of Bollywood.
"I liked to watch a lot of Hindi movies. A lot of kids in my neighbourhood. We grew up in an elite neighbourhood called Malabar Hill. And like nobody really watched Hindi cinema at that time, Indian cinema. I was watching all those movies and dancing to those songs in my room. And boys and girls my age were, like, listening to their parents` favourites, like Abba, or they were getting to like Wham, George Michael, and Madonna. It was a breakthrough of, like, you know, western pop artists, and, you know, I was not really getting into it. I was listening to Lata Mangeshkar and Kishor Kumar and Asha Bhosle and Mohammed Rafi, and everything about me was different," he reminisced.
The Koffee With Karan host further revealed how he only wanted to feel like he belonged but was rather left in isolation.
Johar continued, "So whenever I went down, you know, we lived in like apartment blocks, and when you went down, it was the thing that all the kids in the apartment block would come down and play in the evenings, and I wanted to belong. I wanted to be part of the football team. I wanted to play cricket with the boys. But nobody chose me because I wasn`t good enough. You know, I wasn`t sporty enough. I was not boy enough or man enough. So when you ask me what I wanted to be, the first thing at that age was that I wanted to belong."
On the work front, Karan Johar is promoting his upcoming romantic drama Dhadak 2, which is produced by Dharma Productions. It will release on August 1 in cinemas near you.
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