In October last year, Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan and interior designer Gauri Khan was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) under suspicion of carrying drugs aboard a cruise in Mumbai. Neither Shah Rukh nor Gauri had spoken about it. However, on the recent episode of filmmaker Karan Johar’s chat show, Koffee With Karan Season 7, Gauri broke her silence on the subject and shared that “nothing can be worse” than what the family went through.

During the episode, Karan asked her about life as an entrepreneur, as Shah Rukh’s wife and how the entire family dealt with Aryan’s entanglement in last year’s drugs-on-cruise case.

Enquiring about how the incident, Karan said, “It’s been such a tough time for him (Shah Rukh), not just professionally, but with everything the family went through. You all have emerged so strong, as a family. I know it hasn’t been easy. I know you as a mother and him as a father, and all of us like we’re members of the same family. What do you have to say about your own way of handling tough times, when families go through something like that?”

To this, Gauri replied, “I think nothing can be worse than what we’ve been through as parents.”

She added that the incident made them come out stronger: “Today where we stand as a family, I can say that we are in a great space where we feel loved by everyone — all our friends and so many people who we did not know. With so many messages and so much love, I feel blessed. I’m grateful to all the people who have helped us through this.”

Aryan, 24, spent a few weeks in jail before he was given a clean chit by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the NCB.

It isn’t easy to get the reticent Gauri Khan to make an appearance on a show. Ask Karan Johar, who has convinced her to return to Koffee With Karan 17 years since her last appearance. This time around, the producer-interior designer is joined by friends Maheep Kapoor and Bhavana Pandey.

The conversation, laced with wit and humour, sees the ladies discuss it all — from Shah Rukh Khan’s epic parties to stars’ airport looks, and Gauri’s dating advice to daughter Suhana Khan.

In a segment of the Disney+ Hotstar offering, Gauri opens up on how having a superstar husband also comes with its baggage. The entrepreneur, who has a successful interior designing business and hit Hindi movie productions to her name, says, “When [working on] a new project, there are some people who consider me a designer. But there are also times when it does not work out that way because people do not want to get attached to the baggage of working with Shah Rukh Khan’s wife. It works against me 50 per cent of the time.”

She is a regular of sorts on the Koffee couch. This time around, Katrina Kaif returns to Koffee With Karan with new company — her 'Phone Bhoot' co-stars Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter. While the trio’s easy banter left host Karan Johar in splits, the highlight of the Disney+Hotstar offering was obviously Kaif opening up on her love story with Vicky Kaushal. Little is known about their relationship that culminated into a dreamy wedding in Rajasthan last December.

Giving a glimpse into their dating days, Kaif admitted that he was initially not on her radar. “I didn’t even know much about Vicky. He was just a name I had heard, but had never associated with. But when I met him, I was won over,” she shared. 

She went on to reveal that she first confided in director-friend Zoya Akhtar about being smitten by Kaushal. It was at the filmmaker’s party that Cupid struck the two lovers. Terming their relationship “unexpected and out of the blue”, Kaif further added, “It was my destiny, and it was meant to be. There were so many coincidences that at one point, all of it felt so unreal.”

Over the past few months, rumours have been rife that Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani have parted ways after dating for several years. The two neither confirmed nor denied the development. But on Koffee With Karan, stars are often at their candid best and don’t shy away from talking about their personal life.

The same is true of Shroff, who recently shot for the ninth episode of the Karan Johar-hosted chat show. Gracing the couch with his first co-star Kriti Sanon, Shroff revealed his relationship status, stating, “I am single. I think so at least, and I am currently looking around.”

The actor did not stop at that. In the seventh season of the Disney+ Hotstar offering, Johar has often declared that the couch has the power to manifest one’s true desires.

When he probed Shroff about whom he would like to manifest a relationship with, the actor said, “I have always been infatuated with Shraddha Kapoor. I think she is great.” Kapoor, who was dating photographer Rohan Shrestha, called it quits earlier this year.

Karan Johar has a knack for bringing out celebrities’ candid side on Koffee with Karan. It stands true for his upcoming episode as well that sees Kiara Advani grace the couch with actor-friend Shahid Kapoor. While the two had delivered a smashing hit in Kabir Singh (2019), Advani revealed that they did not quite start off on a great note during the film’s shoot. Reason — Kapoor apparently made her wait for hours before filming a scene.

In a segment of the Disney+ Hotstar offering, she recollects how she “bi**h-slapped Shahid” in her head. “It was my third or fourth day of shooting. I was made to wait for eight hours because there was a discussion on what shoes Shahid would wear in the next scene,” she exclaims.

Surprised at the anecdote, the filmmaker-host sided with Advani, saying, “If I were made to wait for eight hours for a discussion on shoes, I would bi**h-slap too.” Advani, who is said to be dating Sidharth Malhotra, also opened up on her love life on the chat show, admitting that the two are “more than good friends.”

The seventh season of Koffee With Karan saw Alia Bhatt sharing details of her intimate wedding with Ranbir Kapoor. Now, it’s Vicky Kaushal’s turn to spill the beans on his grand wedding with Katrina Kaif that took place last year. As he joined Sidharth Malhotra on the episode, Kaushal had a hearty laugh about the memes and funny tweets that were doing the rounds during his shaadi.

Addressing the reports that stated that the star couple had used drones to avoid security breach, the actor said, “While all the random news was doing the rounds, I was sitting there with the pandit ji, telling him, ‘Jaldi nipta dena please. Ek ghante se zyada nahin.’ During the wedding, these funny memes, tweets and messages would be shared on the internet every day. My friends would read them out, and we had a good laugh. We used to have a blast finding them.”

Throughout this season of the Disney+ Hotstar chat show, host Karan Johar has joked that the couch has the power of manifestation. It was on this couch last season, after all, that Kaif had said that she would make a striking on-screen pair with Kaushal. He had pretended to faint in happiness on hearing the remark.

“That moment last season was my way of [ensuring] that she knew I existed,” said Kaushal. He also revealed that the duo first met at Zoya Akhtar’s party. The rest, as they say, is history.

Soon after actor Ananya Panday appeared on filmmaker Karan Johar’s talk show Koffee With Karan Season 7 along with actor Vijay Deverakonda, fans praised her mature responses to some tricky questions on the show. She spoke on things ranging from her relationship and contemporaries to nepotism.

On being asked if she loved Deverakonda’s 2017 film Arjun Reddy, she said that she won’t be okay with the kind of romantic relationship depicted in the movie. Fans were quick to note how she called out sexism in Deverakonda’s film in front of him.

Now, even her dad, actor Chunky Panday, is all praise for her. “She carried herself so well on the show. I’m very proud of her and I feel she should never lose that honesty in her,” he said in a recent interview.

Meanwhile, actor Ishaan Khatter, whose name popped up in the episode featuring Ananya more than once, has confirmed that he would be making an appearance on the talk show soon, as he posted some BTS pictures on Instagram. While Karan prodded Ananya into confirming that she once dated Ishaan, she remained tight-lipped.

Now, it would be interesting to see if Ishaan spills some beans about his bond with Ananya. 

Earlier this month, mid-day reported that the friendship between Aditya Roy Kapur and Ananya Panday is the talk of B-Town (Aditya Roy Kapur and Ananya Panday are the new best friends in town, July 13). Word about this rumoured couple seems to have reached Karan Johar, too. In the fourth episode of Disney+ Hotstar’s Koffee With Karan that sees Panday gracing the couch with Liger co-star Vijay Deverakonda, the filmmaker-host got them talking about their love lives.

When Johar quizzed her about rumoured ex-boyfriend Ishaan Khatter and link-up with Kartik Aaryan, the star kid was at her cryptic best, saying, “I am the most indiscreet person on this planet.”

However, Panday was a tad more forthcoming when it came to a certain Roy Kapur, as she stated, “I find Aditya Roy Kapur hot.”

Though the host, in his characteristic inquisitive style, goaded her to reveal more about her equation with Kapur, Panday was tight-lipped. Guess only time will tell how this friendship pans out.

Ranveer Singh will never let go of an opportunity to romance actor-wife Deepika Padukone — from putting loved-up Instagram posts dedicated to her, to flying down to the USA to spend his birthday with her. But the actor has rarely spoken about his dynamics with his in-laws, Prakash and Ujjala Padukone. As the actor opens the seventh season of Koffee With Karan with Alia Bhatt, the duo have discussed the joys of married life and adapting to the responsibilities that come with the new roles.

The episode of the Hotstar Specials sees Singh open up on how his life and wardrobe changed ever since he married Deepika in 2018. “I have two wardrobes now. When I go to Bangalore, there is a special wardrobe —  white T-shirt and blue jeans. I don’t want to throw [my in-laws] off,” he laughed.

The actor revealed to host Karan Johar that his mother-in-law was initially taken aback by his flamboyant fashion sense. “[Deepika and I] have been together for 10 years. Initially, [her parents] were completely thrown off [by me]. Who is this, what is this? Especially Deepika’s mom. She did not know what to make of me. We took time to warm up to each other, but now, she is like my mom.”

It’s that time again when stars will grace the couch. Some will play it safe, others will unleash their mean streak, leading to drama and controversies. And host Karan Johar wouldn’t have it any other way. As he gears up for the seventh season of Koffee With Karan, the filmmaker-host insists that he has always been respectful of his celeb guests’ privacy. “I never ask questions that are not in the public domain,” he begins.

“I never bring up the things that I know about them personally because that’s where our friendship lies. Say, if there are articles about Vicky [Kaushal] and Katrina [Kaif] getting married, I will ask about it. But if no one knew that they were dating, and I did, I would never bring it up [on the show]. That’s the line I draw.”

He may be mindful in his own way, but the chats over steaming cups of coffee have brewed many controversies. Where Kangana Ranaut began the nepotism talk, cricketers Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul were dropped from a few matches after their sexist remarks on the chat show. Johar too has been in the line of firing many times. “Whenever the show has been criticized — for reasons that are justified or not — [the blame] is rightfully on me. It’s called Koffee With Karan. Who else will you blame? You can’t blame the coffee,” he grins.

So, is there a new approach to the new edition? “Initially, we thought about having a live audience. But we felt it would take away the intimacy of the show. I think the more I evolve, it shows in every season. I have become more relaxed and unapologetic.”

The upcoming season of the Disney+ Hotstar offering will see a mixed bag of guests — from usual suspects Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and others, to Gen-Z actors like Sara Ali Khan and Ananya Panday. At 50, the filmmaker straddles the role of a mentor and friend effortlessly.

“Sometimes, when you reach a certain age, you start behaving like you want respect, and want to be spoken to in a certain way. I don’t [subscribe to that line of thinking]. If I want to be friends with Ananya or Shanaya [Kapoor], I have to stop playing the Karan Johar card. We discuss their love lives, heartbreaks, and I am happy to be part of the conversation where we feel like we are the same age. My work remains relevant because I get into their headspace. Physically, I may be ageing, but I am a millennial in my head.”

Sara Ali Khan’s weight-loss journey is notable owing to the fact that she has been able to successfully maintain her physique over the last five years. But if you’ve noticed Khan over the past few weeks, her recent transformation wouldn’t have missed your eye. Flaunting her fittest frame during her beach vacations or red-carpet outings, Khan has evidently upped her fitness game, of late.

“Sara had a bunch of [events], like the IIFA Awards 2022, and the Koffee With Karan Season 7 interview in the pipeline, so she wanted to [look leaner]. We adopted a few steps to achieve that,” says her nutritionist and trainer Dr Siddhant Bhargava, who has been guiding her for five years.

“We took to a supremely low-carbohydrate diet. I put her on an effective 1,300 calorie diet, which implies that while she was consuming more than that, the calories that she burnt while exercising or [staying active] enabled her to maintain this number,” he adds.

While the actor doesn’t follow a Keto diet, Bhargava says that she does keep her carbohydrate intake significantly low, at all times. “At the onset, we’d practise weight-training and functional fitness exercises five times in a week. Since she enjoys spinning, we perform circuits to meet her cardiovascular needs. Her genetic make-up is such that she can add muscle mass easily, and that is not always desirable [given her profession]. So, once her base was set, we focused on maintenance. Today, she does low-intensity exercises [like pilates] thrice a week, and functional training, two to three times a week.”

Khan’s meal plan, he asserts, is like “every other Indian girl”. “People may think that one must be on a super-strict diet to look like she does. But when she isn’t working, she eats everything, including butter chicken, and desserts. What she does focus on is portion control, and that’s what I tell everyone to do.  She is also extremely dedicated to her exercise regimen, and trains six days a week. Like her, women battling PCOS will benefit from maintaining a low fat percentage.”

Her Instagram videos are testimony that Khan indeed doesn’t mess with her training routine.  Despite seen huffing and puffing during her sessions with Bhargava, she claps back when he tries to call it a day after an hour, claiming that “one hour is nothing”. “We may do two different circuits; one for the lower body, and the other for the upper body. It involves a mix of endurance work, like burpees, and jumping jacks, and weight-training exercises like rowing, push-ups or shoulder presses. We may do another round of boxing, which she really enjoys.”

- Breakfast: Eggs

- Lunch: When she’s on a limited calorie-intake, it is chicken and vegetables. Else, she adds a jowar or bajra roti to her meal. 

- Snack: Yogurt, or berries, or egg whites if she skips them at breakfast.

- Dinner: Chicken, or prawns. She doesn’t consume carbs at night.

Bhargava caps his sessions with Khan with a 15-minute boxing bout