Interview with Karan Johar

Why did you chose to make a serious issue based film like MY NAME IS KHAN?

I am often asked as to why I chose to go down the serious path and set out to make a serious film like MY NAME IS KHAN. Earlier I had made internal films about relationship and about people I knew. As one grows older one know more about the world and a stage comes when one`s concern for the world outweighs that for your own self and your people around you.

Is MY NAME IS KHAN a love story?

MY NAME IS KHAN is a love story. In my other films I had incorporated unreal elements but in this film one will get to see real elements because this is the most real film of my career till date. I`d say that it is a different film because I had to externalize and also set out to analyze. It has been a journey of growing up for me as a filmmaker. I feel that I was judged far too early and dubbed a bubble gum filmmaker though I have made just one bubble gum film- KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI.

In what way is MY NAME IS KHAN different from your earlier films till date?

The best thing about MY NAME IS KHAN is that one would feel that it is not the same Karan Johar who had made films like KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI and

KABHI KHUSHI KABHIE GHAM, who has also set out to make MY NAME IS KHAN. I am of the opinion that to break your form is far more challenging than to play in your own safety zone as a filmmaker by adhering to the norms of the rule and formula and making a film for which you are remembered.

Isn`t terrorism the backdrop of MY NAME IS KHAN?

Not at all. 9/11 is just a three minute part in the journey of Rizwan Khan played by Shahrukh Khan in MY NAME IS KHAN. The film is larger than 9/11 even

though the repercussions of 9/11 is still there in the world. MY NAME IS KHAN addresses that in an emotional manner though it is not a film on terrorism. It is more

about a layman and humanity and not about a super hero because Rizwan hails from Kandivali west, a distant suburb in Mumbai and not Malabar Hill which is a posh

area in Mumbai.