A recurring theme on Koffee with Karan 8 this year has been personal stories. The latest episode featuring Janhvi and Khushi Kapoor is no exception. The Kapoor sisters bared their heart out to host Karan Johar on the Disney+ Hotstar offering, as they spoke about their actor-mother Sridevi’s untimely demise. When Johar shared that it took him two years to process the grief of losing his father Yash Johar in 2004, Khushi admitted that she felt ‘confused and lost’ after Sridevi passed on.

“When it happened, it took me a while [to process my emotions], to accept it. I wasn’t crying all the time, I was just confused and lost. It did suddenly hit me after a while,” she recounted.

As the two sisters revisited the fateful night, Janhvi remembered her younger sister being a pillar of strength.

“When I got the call, I was in my room and I could hear wailing from Khushi’s room. I barged into her room howling. The minute she looked at me, she just stopped crying. She sat next to me, started comforting me and I’ve never seen her cry about it since.”

To this, Khushi said, “I felt like I had to hold it together for everyone.”

Sharmila Tagore created quite an uproar when she appeared in a bikini for a magazine photoshoot in the mid-sixties. Indian actresses dressed more modestly back than and posing in a swimsuit was unheard of. The actress' bold move, which has been lauded over the years, was hugely criticised back then.

The 79-year-old actress graced the couch on Koffee With Karan season 8 episode 10 with son Saif Ali Khan. The conversation began with the infamous bikini photos as a topic. Host Karan Johar, while eulogizing Sharmila, said, "Not only were you a huge megastar, you broke ground. Your famous bikini shot..." Sharmila chuckled.

"Nobody else wanted it to happen, right? I have heard that the photographer had some anxiety issues about that," Karan continued.

Saif interjected, "People in boarding school used to tell me, is that your mum? I used to be very proud of it."

Sharmila said, "Yes the photographer was slightly worried. I just thought I looked very nice. What had really hurt me later was that everybody had interpreted in such a way, that I was upwardly mobile, I was trying to catch eyeballs. I didn't feel like that."

She recalled being reprimanded by filmmaker Shakti Samanta, but gaining support from her husband Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (aka Tiger).

"When it came out in Filmfare, I was in London. I was unaware (of the criticism), till Shakti ji called me and said, 'Will you come back quickly? Terrible things are happening here.' He gave me a dressing down. He said, 'If you want to be in the public eye, this is not the way to go.' I used to live alone and I was very upset with all these... completely opposite of what I thought would happen. So, I sent a telegram to Tiger. He said, 'I am sure you are looking very nice.' That was my support," Sharmila shared.

Karan pointed out, in many ways perhaps, Sharmila was the first to experience trolling. "A version of trolling, which is also what happens on social media today," Karan said.

"Totally, yes. I think questions were raised in the Parliament. It was not pleasant for me. But learning I did. And after that I was very careful. I chose Aradhana," she said.

"What a blockbuster," Karan added. "Yes, RRR of our time," said Sharmila.

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In a departure from its usual controversies, the eighth season of Koffee With Karan is turning out to be a treasure trove of unheard personal stories. Sharmila Tagore and actor-son Saif Ali Khan have graced the latest episode of Karan Johar’s chat show. In the Disney+ Hotstar offering, the veteran actor revealed details about how Khan and his ex-wife Amrita Singh got married without informing anybody.

Tagore recalled, “I was visiting Mumbai. Saif met me and said, ‘I have something to tell you,’ and then he told me. I was [initially] quiet and then said, ‘Okay, we will talk about it later.’ After he left, I rang Tiger [Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi], told him and there was a long silence.” The veteran actor added that when they met Singh, they took an instant liking to her. 

Grateful that his parents were ‘supportive’, Khan said, “I was 20 years old, ran off and got married without telling anyone. It’s not a nice thing to do to your parents.” While Khan and Singh went their separate ways after 13 years of marriage, Tagore remembered those times as ones filled with laughter. “When they talked, there was a lot of laughter, a lot of mimicking other people. He is good at mimicry and she is a great storyteller. So, they looked very happy together.”

Bollywood is a place filled with uncertainty, and can make or break dreams. While Ajay Devgn has built a strong 31-year career, the superstar has seen his share of failures. In the latest episode of Koffee With Karan 8, the actor, who graced the couch with filmmaker Rohit Shetty, spoke about the dark side of showbiz.

When asked by host Karan Johar if he has seen the harsh side of the movie business, Devgn said, “We’ve seen people getting ruined. I have seen people coming and struggling here. Some say, ‘We give ourselves one year; if something [works out by then], great, otherwise we don’t know what to do and go back.’”

In the Disney+ Hotstar offering, he also spoke about how actors make rounds of filmmakers’ offices, hoping to land a role. “Every six months, you go to an office, seek work, and they say, ‘We’ll let you know.’ Another year passes, you do this repeatedly, and 30 to 40 years go by. Whether you are in the industry or not, the struggle is the same for everyone. Hard work is must.”

Over 19 years since the inception of Koffee with Karan, host Karan Johar has been giving audiences a peek into the lives of their favourite celebrities. The eighth season of the popular chat show continues to keep viewers hooked with the guests’ frank speak on the couch. The latest episode of the Disney+ Hotstar show sees Aditya Roy Kapur and Arjun Kapoor speak candidly on several subjects of their lives.

Considering that Kapur remains most memorable for his performance as Rahul Jaykar in Aashiqui 2, Johar asked him about Kartik Aaryan being cast in the third instalment of the musical romance, in the latest episode. 

“I think he is the perfect person to take the baton forward,” Kapur promptly replied, without any hint of insecurity. He explained, “There was no chance I could be in this, because in the second part my character went for a long swim, from which he is not returning.”

At that, Kapoor couldn’t help quipping, “Then he became the night manager after that,” alluding to Kapur’s hit series that also impressed Hollywood actor Tom Hiddleston, who essayed the titular role in the original international show.

In February, Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani had a dreamy wedding, the heart-warming video of which went viral. Now, in the latest episode of Koffee With Karan 8, Advani—who graces the couch with Vicky Kaushal—revealed that Malhotra proposed to her during their Italy vacation last year. It turns out the Satyaprem Ki Katha actor had joined her beau and his family for the holiday.

In the Disney+ Hotstar offering, Advani admitted that she had an inkling that he’d propose. “The first night that he planned to do it, something didn’t go right. So, it was cancelled. Then, the second night, he took us to a Michelin star restaurant, and I was sleepy because I just landed,” she recalled, adding that after dinner, Malhotra took her for a walk.

“I was cribbing about how tired I was. Suddenly, a violinist came out of the bushes, while his nephew was taking our video. Sid went down on one knee and proposed. I was so overwhelmed that I didn’t say anything. After his whole speech, he started saying the lines from Shershaah, ‘Main Delhi ka seedha saadha launda hoon’ and I burst out laughing.”

Host Karan Johar added that soon after, the couple Face-timed Advani’s parents and him to share the good news.

With Student Of The Year (2012), Karan Johar launched the careers of Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. While Bhatt is easily the biggest female star in Hindi cinema today, Johar has revealed, in the upcoming episode of Koffee with Karan 8, how Malhotra and Dhawan tried to dissuade him from casting her in the campus drama.

The host tells his guests, “The first time that Alia walked in, both of you sent me messages saying you can’t cast her. One of you said she is too young. Three months post that, for a photoshoot, I remember she stood quietly and didn’t look at either of you. Either she was conscious or shy, because you both already knew me and she didn’t know me at all. We did the photoshoot and I knew at the first shot [that she would be a star].”

Johar also shared that the two actors kept sending him images of other girls, hoping that he would cast one of them instead of Bhatt.

In the Disney+ Hotstar offering, Johar walks down memory lane with his guests, remembering how Malhotra almost broke Dhawan’s nose while filming an action scene. The host recalls, “I remember Alia was screaming loudly when I went to the hospital, but Varun’s family was only worried about Sid. They were like, ‘Yeh Varun ki galti hogi.’”

To this, Dhawan jokingly adds, “I think they wanted to hit me for a while.”

Bollywood gossip and laughs aren’t the only things you get when Kareena Kapoor Khan and Alia Bhatt share the couch. In the latest episode of Disney+ Hotstar’s Koffee With Karan 8, the two delved deep into their personal lives, with Kapoor speaking about cherishing her role as a mother to Taimur and Jehangir, and finding a supportive co-parent in husband Saif Ali Khan.

In the sections of Kwiz & Tell and Ask Me Anything, the actor reflected on how Khan—who has two kids, Sara Ali Khan and Ibrahim Ali Khan with ex-wife Amrita Singh—has evolved as a father over the years. She stated that he is a hands-on dad to Taimur and Jehangir, something that his youth and chock-a-block work schedules had taken away from him in Sara and Ibrahim’s growing-up years.

“Saif actually grew up with his own kids. He had Sara and Ibrahim [when he was] very young himself,” said Kapoor.

When host Karan Johar asked her if she feels he found his footing as a father when they had Taimur, she said, “Obviously, he has a lot of time now. When he had become a father back then, he was also working, he was in his 20s. [He was] trying to build his career, start his life.”

Glamorous stars, the opulent set, the rapid fire round, it’s all there. And yet, the eighth season of Koffee With Karan is turning out to be different from its preceding instalments. From Deepika Padukone talking about battling depression to Bobby Deol reflecting on the low phase in his career, we are hearing stories of vulnerability. In the upcoming episode featuring Sara Ali Khan and Ananya Panday, host Karan Johar bares his heart out, talking about his friendships and falling-out.

In the section of Ask Me Anything with Karan, he reveals how Kareena Kapoor Khan and he bounced back after a fight. The two had a falling-out in 2003 over Kal Ho Naa Ho. “We didn’t speak for a year-and-a-half. It was only when my father [the late Yash Johar] was diagnosed with cancer that she called me. She was silent, I was silent. She was like, ‘I don’t know what to say.’ I told her, ‘Don’t say anything, I know you are there.’ When he passed away, she was in Bangkok, and the [minute] she landed from her shoot, she came home. We spent all night chatting. We went back to where we were,” recalls the filmmaker-host.

In the Disney+ Hotstar offering, he also recollects how Kajol and he hugged and made up two years after the Ae Dil Hai Mushkil-Shivaay clash. “We hadn’t spoken in two years. When Yash and Roohi were born, I just sent her their images. I said, ‘You don’t need to reply, but these are what my children look like.’ She messaged back, saying, ‘I am full of love right now.’ A month later, she said, ‘It’s my birthday, you don’t have to come.’ But I went. We hugged, we cried, and it was done.”

Soul-baring conversations seem to be the theme of Koffee With Karan’s eighth season. In its opening episode, Deepika Padukone spoke about battling depression. Now, as brothers Sunny and Bobby Deol grace the couch in the upcoming episode, the latter has opened up about how he withdrew from the industry when his films didn’t work. Bobby, who had made a splash with his debut film Barsaat (1995) and followed it up with hits in Gupt (1997) and Soldier (1998), saw a lean phase through the next two decades.

“I gave up, I started pitying myself. I sat at home, and took to drinking a lot. I used to keep cursing and saying, ‘I am good. Why don’t people want to work with me?’ I became so negative about everything. [Then one day], I heard my son telling his mother, ‘Papa sits at home and you go to work every day.’ Something snapped in me. It was a slow process, it took me time to get into the right frame of mind,” he recollects in the Disney+ Hotstar offering.

Bobby says things started moving after he signed Race 3 (2018), Love Hostel (2022) and Aashram. “I became more focused. I went and met people, told them I want to work with you all.”

Next, the actor will be seen in Animal.

Only days ago, the promo of Koffee With Karan 8 told us an unknown tidbit about Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh’s love story—that the two had got engaged as early as in 2015. Now, as the power couple grace the couch together for the first time on the opening episode of the Disney+ Hotstar show, the two have spoken about it all—from their courtship to the big, fat wedding—to host Karan Johar.

It turns out that Padukone scouted numerous locations for the wedding and planned the big day over eight to 10 months. “Deepika had taken some time out to curate the wedding, and she went around the world to find that spot,” says Singh, who was shooting round the clock for Rohit Shetty’s Simmba (2018) at the time.

After checking out several locations around the world, Padukone finally zeroed in on Lake Como, Italy, for their 2018 wedding.

She reveals, “Ideally, I would have loved for us to get married in India because we are both quite rooted. We came across this beautiful location, Lake Como. The water means a lot to us, we love the sand and sea. Having an Indian wedding on a beach is not the ideal thing, [but] this worked out well because it had nature, water and it could hold just the [number] of people we wanted there.”

Last September, Karan Johar had announced that his talk show, Koffee With Karan, had been renewed for another season. It looks like we’ll be getting our weekly dose of celebrity banter and gossip soon. We hear that the eighth edition of the filmmaker-host’s popular chat show is scheduled to begin streaming on Disney+ Hotstar from June-end.

So, who will grace the couch in the upcoming season? Sources say that the chat show regulars — from Kareena Kapoor Khan to Ranveer Singh, from Akshay Kumar to Johar’s ‘students’ Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra — are on the guest list. But it is heard that Johar is keen to open the season with actor-couple Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor.

A source reveals, “Karan wants to feature new combinations in this instalment. Ranbir and Alia top his list. While Alia opened the last three editions, Karan knows that the audience is keen to know more about the couple’s married life and parenthood. So, he is hoping to bring them on the couch. He would also love to have Shah Rukh Khan, who was conspicuous by his absence in the last edition, feature in the opening episode or the season finale.”

The director’s next, Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, is slated to release on July 28. So, there is a possibility that a special episode will be shot with the principal cast of Singh, Bhatt, Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan and Shabana Azmi.