Shah Rukh: 10-year cycle

Ten years ago, when he was in Calcutta for a day, nobody bothered about a certain Karan Johar. “I remember, I was on my way to meet Shah Rukh, who was shooting (in North Bengal),” he smiles sheepishly.

Fast forward to 2006, with two days to go for Shah Rukh’s birthday, Karan is again in Calcutta just for a day. But now, KJo is a superstar in his own right. In town to receive an Outstanding Young Achiever award, the 34-year-old is not just Bollywood’s hottest director, but a host, an actor, a model and a film-maker all rolled into one.

“I am coming here after a decade and I know a lot has changed in this period,” he told Metro from his hotel room on Tuesday afternoon, adding that he came to Calcutta several times as a child with father Yash Johar, who was then Indian liaison officer for Ronald Joffe’s City of Joy.

But what Karan still remembers clearly is his passing-through trip 10 years ago. “One day is not enough to form memories,” he says. “But yes, I do remember how my mother had insisted that I get tonnes of mishti doi and I was looking all over the place for that,” laughs the man behind big screen’s K-series, from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai to Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna.

The city breeze-through was two years after Karan played Shah Rukh’s best friend Rocky in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, the thought of which still brings a smile to his face. “I designed Shah Rukh’s clothes in Adi’s (Aditya Chopra) film as I wanted to be a fashion designer then,” he recounts.

But destiny had other things in store for the K-man. “There was a time when I had overheard my worried parents telling each other ‘what will Karan do in life’. Then, after watching Kuch Kuch..., the three of us cried together for two hours.”

Karan’s eyes welled up again on Tuesday evening when he received a standing ovation from the audience at the awards ceremony organised by the Young Leader’s Forum of the Indian Chamber of Commerce. “I am just 34 and there is so much to do,” concluded Karan. nSee also Page 25