Karan Johar got candid about Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’s success, he feels a ‘bit overwhelmed’

By: Priyal Joshi

With the release of the recent hit Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, veteran Bollywood director Karan Johar made a triumphant return to the industry. Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt, two great artists, play the key parts in the love drama, which released in theaters in July of this year. Even the actors and crew of the movie Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani were taken aback by its outstanding box office performance; a success of this magnitude was not anticipated.

Karan Johar revealed that,  “The truth is that I’m a bit overwhelmed. It’s not that I was not hoping for this. But I think the environment in our industry was kind of turbulent at the time and I haven’t released a film that I’ve directed in 7 years. Plus, the last three years were not easy on me or the industry. There was a lot of negativity. And all that anxiety kind of built a ball of anxiety inside me which I hadn’t addressed,”

“I had brushed a lot under the carpet because I wanted to appear resilient – to not only my family but also to my company. It all came out at the week of the film’s release, with the anxiety and panic attacks. There was no sleep, there was just sheer nervousness,” recalled the filmmaker.

“Right now, when people talk to me about the film I still have a bit of that in me. It’s going to take a while before this film leaves my system. Because I hadn’t realised how stressful it was for me. Even though I feel failure is very critical in anyone’s journey, this time I felt I couldn’t afford to fail. This film had eventually reached a stage where it had to be like a make-or-break situation for me,” added Karan Johar.