Director-producer Karan Johar needs to ‘pop pills’ to keep the jitters at bay and pray for sleep during flights, he said on Monday, opening up about his travel anxiety.

Johar’s pre-flight routine is a ‘full-scale operation’, he said in an Instagram post. It kicks in even before the journey begins, driven by an obsessive need to reach the airport way ahead of time, he added.

“First, I have a desperate need to reach the airport early (sometimes even before the ground staff have arrived), then in the lounge I check my passport and my boarding card 50 times …. And once I am seated … I wait for the pilot to announce the duration of the flight…. As if my life depends on it… Then I wait for him or her to tell us about the weather enroute … if we are told it’s “a smooth ride”, I can breathe…,” Johar wrote.

Johar also added that on longer flights, he takes medicines in order to sleep to avoid anxiety caused by turbulence.

“On a long haul flight I pop a pill and pray for sleep (subconscious mind is always turbulence aware) …. Then I feel the desperate urge to be hugely polite to the cabin crew (In case of an emergency they will be kind to the kind) so I smile,” he wrote.

Bollywood celebrities like Hrithik Roshan and Manisha Koirala reacted to Johar’s post, sharing their own travel anxieties and experiences.

“I can fly across buildings on a single cable, but without the mask, I am terrified of turbulence. You are not alone,” Hrithik wrote in the comment section.

On the work front, the filmmaker’s last project as a director was the 2023 romantic comedy-drama Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani. The film, which stars Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt, won the National Award in 2024.

Johar’s upcoming production venture, Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri, is set to release on 25 December.