‘Ibrahim, Khushi have fragile hearts': Karan Johar opens up on hate received by Nadaaniyan, takes accountability

Hindustan Times

20-05-2025

Earlier this year, Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh's son Ibrahim Ali Khan made his debut in Bollywood opposite Janhvi Kapoor's sister with Nadaaniyan. Directed by debutante Shauna Gautam, the teen rom com was backed by Karan Johar's production house Dharma. Nadaaniyan failed to impress, like some films do every now and then. The dialogues, performances and many references such as 'greatest Noida' were trolled brutally. But the negativity did not stop there and went on for weeks, with some netizens even body shaming the lead actors. KJo has now spoken about the hatred received by Nadaaniyan, taking the accountability for it.
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Karan Johar recently got candid during an interview and revealed that his team had reached out to certain YouTubers requesting them to move on from Nadaaniyan. However, YouTubers claimed that making content about the film's failure is garnering engagement on their accounts. Karan explained that hating on Nadaaniyan became 'fashionable'. But he believes it's time to move on. Talking to Galatta Plus, KJo shared, 'Move on naa, move on. Till the next bad thing comes on. I kept waiting when is the next really bad film coming, will someone just stop hating on Nadaaniyan, because more than anything else, I was feeling terrible for… and I know that I am apparently not supposed to say this also, cause I'm not supposed to show sympathy to Ibrahim or Khushi or Shauna, whose the director, cause they were all first timers.'
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Karan continued to add, 'Apparently they're not meant to have emotions, because they come from privilege, so hate on them. Like they're not meant to feel bad at all because they come from entitlement, they come from privilege. They also have fragile hearts, they're also making their first steps in a business, they also have emotions, they're going to feel terrible. But no. Say you didn't like it once, that's going to make them feel bad anyway. But why are you saying it 10 times?'
KJo then took the blame on himself, claiming that he attracted 'negativity and hatred'. The filmmaker even stated that if he was not the producer, maybe the newcomers would not have received this much hate. Interestingly, Karan was trolled for Nadaaniyan with netizens accusing him of only casting star kids in his films. However, during the interview, the filmmaker revealed that 80% of Dharma's roster features non-star kids, giving Kill actors Lakshya and Raghav Juyal as examples.
Up next, Karan will be producing Dhadak 2 starring Triptii Dimri and Siddhant Chaturvedi in the lead. The film will be a spiritual sequel to Ishaan Khatter's second project and Janhvi Kapoor's debut film, Dhadak (2018).