Karan Johar made Ayan Mukerji re-shoot Brahmastra song ‘Kesariya’: ‘What the hell is going on, what is wrong with you?’

Directors and producers may not always see eye to eye when it comes to making certain creative choices in a film. And in the case of Brahmastra, something similar happened a couple of times between filmmaker Ayan Mukerji and Karan Johar, who has bankrolled the fantasy drama under his Dharma Productions.
During a recently held event at FICCI, when asked about whether the pair disagreed on some aspects of the movie, both Karan and Ayan admitted there were some portions that they had some discussions over. “There was stuff which Karan did not like. There was a big Kaali Puja sequence in the film. When you (Karan) saw the sequence, you were very harsh. He really bit**** about it. I hope I am allowed to say that word,” Ayan said at the event.

However, Karan disagreed and said, “I never did that. I said that the scene was very terrible and I said I think you need to re-shoot it. And there was actually, and we can say it now, Kesariya was shot in another way.”
“Kesariya was shot with Ranbir dancing quite feverishly. When we saw the song, I said ‘What the hell is going on? What is wrong with you Ayan?’. Why were they dancing? Kesariya was shot differently. Same tune and melody but treated differently. It is then that Ayan realised it has to be treated differently,” the director-producer stated.

“Kesariya,” sung Arijit Singh, and composed Pritam, faced extreme reactions upon its release. While some people couldn’t get enough of the song, a few others couldn’t get past the phrase ‘Love Storiyaan’ that was used in the track. Memes were made and a lot of things were said on the internet about that particular creative choice.
In an interview with Film Companion, lyric Amitabh Bhattacharya had shared, “It was unexpected. Earlier, it has happened in my career where people have taken offence to some or the other connotations in my songs. But here, we never expected to draw flak on the words ‘Love Storiyaan‘.”
Helmed Ayan Mukerji, and starring Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor in the lead, Brahmastra is currently running in cinemas.