Karan Johar discussed how SRK was stereotyped but wanted to experiment with his roles, while Zoya Akhtar pointed out how the women are experimenting with the help of their production houses
Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan
Last Updated: 02.09 PM, Sep 24, 2024
Karan Johar made a big revelation about younger actors. The filmmaker, who was a part of a roundtable interaction recently, spoke about the few actors who experiment in their roles. He and Zoya Akhtar mentioned that apart from Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Naseeruddin Shah, no other younger actor is open to newer roles. They also shared that the case is different with women, who have opened their production house to have a control over the kind of roles they can pick and choose in their careers. Here’s how the interaction went…
"We (the Hindi film industry) are the least experimental cinema in the country," Karan said during his roundtable interaction with The Hollywood Reporter. When questioned why, he simply said it is the way it is. "There are so many filmmakers who want to tell their stories but the mega movie stars of Hindi cinema will not experiment," he shared, mentioning how the actors would say that they want to new characters and explore newer stories but they wouldn't experiment.
To that, Zoya shared that it is also the audience. She mentioned how the content has not gone down well, so people are scared. Mentioning Naseeruddin Shah as well as Amitabh Bachchan, Zoya shared that they are interested in parts. Karan joined in and spoke of Aamir, citing the example of Lagaan and how the year was iconic for Hindi cinema because even Gadar, K3G, and Dil Chahta Hai released in the same year. He pointed out how Gadar was the biggest in business, while Lagaan was nominated for the Academy Award. Karan points out Aamir's graph as an actor with Taare Zameen Par, Rang De Basanti, and Ghajini. With the last film, the maker believes Aamir proved himself as a game-changer. The one thing Karan loves about Aamir is that when the actor deviates, he goes back. With that, he mentioned Aamir making Sitaare Zameen Par.
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Karan then talks about SRK and how the superstar never wanted to play the mainstream guy but because of DDLJ, everybody made love stories with him. "He wanted to be the quirky star who changed Indian cinema, but now no one will allow it," Karan mentioned. It is because there's an expectation linked to Shah Rukh Khan, which will not allow any other kind of film to be made with him. He calls that sad because SRK is an actor first and a star after that. Nonetheless, Karan stated that Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan are massive movie stars because they took the risk.
Karan says that the other stars are not experimenting, but the women are. Zoya added that the women have started producing because if they don't get a part, they will make it happen. KJo added that the younger generation is too scared of failure without realizing that the way to success is only if you don't fear failure.