Karan Johar is no stranger to being trolled. Whether it is his fashion sense or his sexual orientation, the filmmaker frequently gets attacked on social media for his choices.
Recently, Karan was on Arbaaz Khan’s chat show, where he read out a comment from a troll who asked him if he had a “gender malfunction”. Of course, he shut the troll down like a total boss.
“No, Parineeti. I was born a man. I’m proud to be a man. I have a woman in me, and that makes me more of a man,” Karan replied.
The filmmaker revealed that he no longer gets upset about being trolled. “Initially when I used to get it (trolling), I used to deal with it by being upset and angry. Then it went into a state of indifference, because I was like, I can’t let this get to me. Now, I am in a state of glorious amusement. Every morning I wake up to abuse, and it amuses me,” he said.
Karan then analysed why trolls attack celebrities on social media. “The thing with social media is, it is definitely faceless and sometimes, it is nameless. There are people who are going through their own beats of life and some people bother them. They don’t realise that some of us are as vulnerable as they are and go through our own hardships, turbulences, issues… Nobody realises that,” he said.
“They just think ki aap glamour industry ke hai toh you are privileged. Some of us come home to loneliness, emptiness, fears, apprehensions, depression, anxiety. Everyone goes through the beats of life. It’s just that we internalise it and they externalise it and keep writing this kind of random rubbish,” he added.
According to Karan, trolls could either be unemployed or think that they are unattractive or simply be unhappy. “They unleash themselves on us. It’s just the way it is. It’s part of our business,” he said.
On the work front, Karan will soon begin work on his upcoming directorial venture, Takht. He has roped in Ranveer Singh, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Vicky Kaushal, Alia Bhatt, Janhvi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor and Bhumi Pednekar for the ambitious period drama, which is set against the backdrop of the Mughal empire. Takht is slated to release in 2020.