Karan Johar on North-South divide amid RRR, KGF 2 and Pushpa success: ‘We want to grow as Indian cinema’

Karan Johar launched the trailer of Dharma Productions’ next film Jugjugg Jeeyo, directed filmmaker Raj Mehta, on Sunday. He was joined the film’s star cast Anil Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor, Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani, in Mumbai.
Karan Johar, who was one of the presenters of India’s first pan-India successes — Baahubali: The beginning and Baahulabi: The Conclusion — shared his thoughts on the ongoing debate about the divide between Bollywood and and the south Indian film industry. Here, he said that the massive success of south films such as RRR, KGF: Chapter 2 and Pushpa has “raised the bar for Indian films” and taught the industry to aim higher and that successful films across languages only give a push to Indian cinema as a collective unit.
He said, “We can say with a lot of pride that we are a part of Indian cinema. We are proud of RRR, KGF and Pushpa which did phenomenal business. These films have raised the bar of Indian films, told us that our standards can be so massive and we can reach so far ahead.”

Following the success of south Indian films, there has been a conversation around Hindi films not fairing well at the box office. On this, Karan said, “In Hindi cinema, Gangubai Kathiawadi did solid business, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 has opened fantastic. We hope that Jugjugg Jeeyo also becomes a part of that l.”
“We want films of all languages to work… Panjabi films, Marathi films have also done well recently, so we don’t want any language (films) to be compared to each other. We are just proud of Indian cinema. We want our cinema keeps marching ahead and being on the entertainment global map,” he added.
When asked if he considers south Indian films are proving to be a competition to Hindi films, he said, “There is no competition. Many years ago, I had presented Baahubali. I had huge faith in the power of cinema. There’s no competition between the same industry, how can there be? We grow together. To compete would be completely not servicing the requirements of entertainment in the industry.”
Karan then shared how he thinks this is the time for all the film industries of the nation to unite. He said, “We have to be one collective unit. Rajamouli sir has said this many times that we should be one cinema. The best crossover has happened recently, when the South films have done such good business in the North. Going to any festival, wining an Oscar doesn’t matter to us. We want to grow as Indian cinema, that has been proven time and again.”