Karan Johar slams cinema intellectuals for praising AWIAL but ignoring Cannes selection Homebound: ‘One Nadaaniyan and you will…'
It is a proud moment for Karan Johar as his production Homebound is headed to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival 2025. He recently slammed cinema intellectuals for gushing over last year's Grand Prix winner All We Imagine As Light but ignoring his film. He mentioned how nobody talks about the way his production house has pushed boundaries but will hate on him for Nadaaniyan.
In a recent interview with Galatta Plus, Karan Johar was asked if people criticized him more for making something like Nadaaniyan than they praised him for supporting a project like Homebound. He said that they did, and it upset him. He believed people were judging him because he seemed 'flamboyant' or different from other filmmakers.
Karan shared that whenever they tried something new or pushed boundaries in cinema, people didn't really talk about it. He felt that no one mentioned when their films dealt with important or sensitive topics. 'One Nadaaniyan and you'll attack me. And it becomes Karan Johar's Nadaaniyan and like go on and on and on,' he stated.
The filmmaker further praised All We Imagine as Light and its director Payal Kapadia, who created waves at last year's Cannes. However, he stated that while cinema intellectuals would openly praise films like that, they didn't acknowledge that a mainstream studio like his Dharma Productions also had a movie officially selected at the film festival.
Karan continued, 'Fully funded by us, following our vision for it, following our desire to put out interesting cinema from our country, doing the nation proud by global representation... Not one article written by a cinema intellectual who will gush about anybody else but it's a Dharma Production film so they will say nothing.' He added that he found this silence unfair.
Homebound stars Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khatter, and Vishal Jethwa. The film is written and directed by Neeraj Ghaywan. It is scheduled to premiere at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard category. Hollywood filmmaker Martin Scorsese is the executive producer of the movie.
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