Karan Johar marked his triumphant return to filmmaking with the recent blockbuster, “Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani.” The romantic drama, starring the talented duo Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt, took the box office by storm when it hit theatres in July this year. The film’s exceptional success surprised both its cast and crew, and in a recent interview with The Indian Express, director Karan Johar shared why this triumph held such significance for him.
Speaking to host Shubra Gupta, Johar revealed his feelings about the overwhelming success of the film. He admitted, “The truth is that I’m a bit overwhelmed. It’s not that I was not hoping for this. But I think the environment in our industry was kind of turbulent at the time, and I haven’t released a film that I’ve directed in 7 years.” Johar went on to explain that the past three years had been challenging for him personally and for the industry, marked by negativity. “All that anxiety kind of built a ball of anxiety inside me, which I hadn’t addressed,” he shared.
The filmmaker candidly mentioned that he had been suppressing his anxieties, wanting to appear resilient to his family and his company. However, as the release week of the film approached, his pent-up anxiety and panic attacks surfaced. He recounted the sleepless nights and overwhelming nervousness that took hold.
Johar emphasized that while he believes failure is a crucial part of anyone’s journey, this time, he felt he couldn’t afford to fail. “This film had eventually reached a stage where it had to be like a make-or-break situation for me,” he added.
The success of “Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani” has clearly left a deep impact on Karan Johar, and he acknowledged that it would take some time before the film’s legacy fully leaves his system.
