Karan Johar’s harsh advice to aspiring filmmakers: ‘If you don’t acknowledge brilliance of others, what right have you…’

Karan Johar has decried those who are familiar with just one kind of cinema and still want to make movies for a living. In his opinion, one should watch movies in every language in India and across the world to acquaint oneself with different styles and forms of filmmaking.
Johar was speaking to film journal Baradwaj Rangan for Galatta Plus. Rangan asked him if he had any advice or questions for aspiring directors. Johar responded that he will first ask them whether they have a story to tell and if have they seen enough movies of every kind.

“I think it’s not a prerequisite that you are an avid viewer. Like, I don’t have to do something 3000 times for me to do it well once. But I feel if you’ve not watched the great masters the great storytellers across the nation and the world, how can you say ‘I want to be a director?’ What is your knowledge? What have you learned?” he said.

Johar said that one does not have to go to a film school as these days hopeful filmmakers have enough resources to teach themselves, provided they are passionate about it. “I judge talent shows in which people have self-taught dance, all kinds of acrobatics. Self-teaching is also a big phenomena today. You can teach yourself anything you want to, if you are passionate about it,” he said.

But they, said Johar, must be familiar with the work of great directors like Pedro Almodóvar, SS Rajamouli, and Steven Spielberg. Johar went on to condemn those who wish to be a film directors only because they weren’t good-looking enough to become movie stars. “That cannot be the reason why you’re a director. It cannot be your plan B, firstly,” he said.
Johar’s next film as director–his first feature in six years–is Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, starring Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh.