After a seven-year absence, director Karan Johar is back on the big screen with Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. The movie, which also stars Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Tota Roy Chowdhury, and Churni Ganguly, features Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt in the key roles. Both viewers and critics have universally praised and supported the movie. The film, according to Karan, is the consequence of all the repressed rage throughout the years.

Karan Johar responded to a question about whether the movie was inspired by his experiences in life by saying, “You see, I had really forward-thinking parents who brought me up. They gave me the freedom to be who I was. I was a pretty feminine child, unlike the kids in my class or neighbourhood.

Everyone else grew up with pop culture or Western music. My musical role models when I was younger were Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Mohammed Rafi, and Kishor Kumar. The songs have been tone-deaf sung aloud by myself. Because he felt it was fantastic when I danced to such tunes in my room, my father would often encourage me to dance in front of his friends. He thought I was talking to myself.”

He continued and said, He didn’t notice that he was behaving oddly, femininely, or in any other way not like the other lads. The other kids were not particularly fond of this personality type. He added that, “Your sexual orientation wasn’t given a name back then.”

The term “pansy” kept popping up in my head. I was obese at the time. I couldn’t handle the words that were used against me when I went out and spoke to boys and girls from other schools, so I resorted to food for comfort. It led to trauma. I didn’t grow up this way; it’s how my parents raised me, and I won’t try to rationalise it. And this film conveys that, in my opinion.

This movie features a lot of me rebelling, not just against my upbringing but also against the events of the past few years, and it ends with the message that “your individuality is all that matters.” He concluded.

On the professional front, Karan Johar will next helm an action film. The director had promised the same on his 50th birthday the previous year.