Meena Iyer (DNA; June 3, 2019)

The nice thing about Karan Johar is that he is as candid about his failure as he is about his success. When asked whether he broke down after the no-show of Kalank, the filmmaker explained how he couldn’t afford to. Read in his own words how he made his setback his strength.

What happens when a film from your banner (Dharma Productions) fails?
Success and failure are something you have to learn to deal with. I am very clear that when you have a success, you have to meet it with relief. But then, you have to move on to the next thing. You can’t celebrate that success; you cannot analyse it. As far as failure is concerned, you have to contemplate and you have to learn. There is always a reason why you fail. Post Kalank that is what I did. I reasoned with it, I contemplated it. My director Abhishek Varman and I sat down and we analysed where we fumbled. I have to be involved with each film Dharma produces, because I am not just the producer, I am the creative producer.

To me, when Kalank fails, it is my failure. I’m the older one, I’m the wiser one. I’m the more knowledgeable person about what works and what doesn’t. If the film has faltered, it is largely my responsibility and my blame. Of course, no one person can take the blame, but I choose to because I felt that the material was something I was aware of for not one year but 15 years. It was a film that was close to my heart and perhaps that is the reason why I lost a certain objectivity. I failed the movie by not being the right governing force. And this taught me so much. There are two ways I could have gone about this. I could have sunk in this failure or I could have questioned, ‘Why?’ Or I could have said, ‘Why did this happen and let me learn from this.’ Let this be a new 2.0 feeling where I am a lot more analytical. I am putting my projects through a lot more trials and tribulations before it is out there to an audience. When you fail and learn from it, that to me is a success. I will never look at Kalank as a failure. I will look at it as a success because it has taught me how not to fail like this.

Hits and flops aside, do you have meltdowns sometimes?
Let me say, I cannot be the one who has a breakdown. I hold the Dharma (company and family) together. I am the driving force of Dharma. I am someone who everyone in the company looks at. When everyone looks at you and you crumble, then you spread that energy across the company.

There was not a single point after Kalank when I had a breakdown, meltdown or low moment, whatever you want to term it. I was like—we have to take this positively; we have to emerge on top from this. I have a strong and talented team and lots of internal love. I must say here that every cast member of Kalank and the director (Abhishek Varman) were like soldiers. They fought till the very end. Even when they felt they had lost all hope; they took back something solid from the experience. I love that spirit.

You were saying Varun Dhawan is special. Why?
Varun came to me and said, ‘Karan, let’s make this up to the audience and to the studio which backed us. Let us, the same team get together and make it up to them by giving them a winner. Let us not get cowed down by this failure. Instead let us move on to something more positive.’ I have humongous respect for Varun. Tell me, how many lead actors will do something like this? How many actors will walk into the room of the producer and not blame him or her for the failure? Alia Bhatt, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditya Roy Kapur…all of them called me with only love and respect. They said, ‘We stand by the film.’ No one called with the feeling, ‘Why did this happen to us?’ They were all like, ‘No, this has happened. Now, let us make sure we will rise above this.’ The spirit of the cast and crew is what gratified me. I am happy that the people I have surrounded myself with are strong, happy and positive. I have learnt from this whole experience.

Why do you keep taking the blame for Kalank?
I will never go through a phase of delusion where I will blame the audience. If a film fails, it is my fault, it is our fault. I am the older one and I have to be the wiser one. I shouldn’t be making mistakes. Let me say this. All of us are allowed to have interpretational errors in cinema. We may interpret a subject matter in such a way that may not go into your liking. Or your thinking. But when you make a colossal film, you cannot go wrong. That means there was something we didn’t look at initially and closely. And I take that responsibility. I told the director, there is no one person to blame. And, if there is, then please hold me responsible. I should have been much more vigilant.


(Clockwise from top left) Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit