It was at IIFA Awards 2017 in New York that the moviemaker Karan Johar and actors Varun Dhawan and Saif Ali Khan made unfavorable comments on nepotism, targeting Bollywood diva Kangana Ranaut. Quite obviously, the trio received flak from people for taking a dig at Ranaut last weekend when they chanted “Nepotism rocks”.
KJo recently interacted with NDTV and here’s what he had to say in this connection,
“Of course I don’t believe that ‘nepotism rocks’. Of course, I believe that only talent rocks. If anything that rocks, it’s your talent, hard work and conviction. It’s the energy you bring to your job. What we said was meant to be a joke, which I think has been misplaced, misunderstood and I think it went wrong. I regret it.”
The IIFA ‘Best Actor in a Comic Role’ award winner, Varun Dhawan took to Twitter to post an apology; however, KJo accepted that only he was behind this idea. In his words,
“The idea of that joke was entirely mine, so I take onus of the idea of what we said. And I think we went a bit too far with the Kangana mention.”
As we know that all the three are the sons of Bollywood celebrities, they made reference to their well-known parents on the stage and chorused, “Nepotism rocks”. If you watch Koffee With Karan, you must be knowing that when Kangana appeared on the talk show, she called KJo “the flagbearer of nepotism” in B-Town and hence, this incident can directly be associated with Kangana’s statement.
Karan further added,
“No matter what I say or feel about my issues with what Kangana said on my talk show Koffee With Karan, I think I was raised to be a dignified, a chivalrous, and a decent person. That’s the upbringing that I was given and I feel that I failed on those accounts. I felt that no matter what my thoughts or personal issues on this, I should not have repeatedly brought that up. For that, I’m deeply regretful.”
Twitterati didn’t like this kind of behavior from the trio and brutally thrashed them in harsh words. One thing that deserves to be mentioned here is that they all mocked Kangana in her absence. However, KJo clarified that their joke might be disagreeable but it was not intended to hurt anyone’s sentiments. As per him,
“It was something that we said in humour, it may be terrible humour, bad humour, misplaced humour, but our intention was not to hurt anyone. That very core is what failed. Then I got carried away in the moment and I regret that.”
In the concluding part, Karan said,
“I want to once and for all say and close this chapter after this and subsequently I will not speak about nepotism nor Kangana because it would be distrustful for her and it would be ungraceful at my end, which I’ve already been. Nepotism is easy access, nobody can deny that, but what you do with that access is what moulds you into a professional.”
What do you think rocks in Bollywood – nepotism or talent?