Karan Johar criticizes Bollywood PR overdrive, says work should speak for itself
Filmmaker Karan Johar has criticized Bollywood’s increasing reliance on paid publicity and performative film promotion. He said this trend makes it difficult to know whether audience approval is genuine or bought.
Filmmaker Karan Johar has criticized the film industry’s increasing dependence on public relations. He said that Bollywood would be better if artists let their work speak for them.
in a recent conversation WeekJohar said that the current culture of paid promotion has increased a lot. This makes it difficult to judge what is really connecting with the audience.
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Industry’s increasing dependence on PR
The director-producer was answering a question from the audience about what kind of promotional strategies actors are now using to promote their films. The question referred to Janhvi Kapoor wearing a shirt named Sundari for her film most beautiful Sidharth Malhotra doing crocodile gimmick with Shanaya Kapoor you and me.
The audience member then asked whether such PR tactics, seen in Hollywood, were likely to be more common in Bollywood.
Johar said that the industry should stop relying so much on PR. He said achievements should speak for themselves and now most of the publicity is paid for. He added, “If you want to say ‘You look gorgeous’, you just have to pay. If you want to say you’re the best actor on planet Earth, you just have to pay.”
Difficulty gauging audience reaction
He also talked about what he described as “methodology marketing”, but said this issue was secondary to the larger problem. According to Johar, the real concern is that people are marketing themselves too aggressively instead of focusing on their art. He clarified that he was not just referring to the names mentioned in the question, but the entire industry.
The filmmaker said that promotion and marketing are important business categories, but they need to be handled in the right way.
Johar further said that the fact that “everything is available at a price” is very disturbing because “you can’t really understand what’s connecting and what’s not. Are people liking it or are paid to like it? I don’t know, I can’t tell half the time. It’s confusing to me because sometimes I have to pay for it too.”
Koffee with Karan is back
But coffee with karanJohar kept his update brief. When asked about the return of the show, he said, ‘This year, Diwali, season 9.’
With this, he confirmed the return of a program that remains one of the most talked about talk shows in Hindi cinema due to its candid conversations and frequent debates.
The eighth season premiered in October 2023 and concluded in January 2024.
It included notable guests like Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol, Sara Ali Khan and Ananya Panday, and Kareena Kapoor Khan with Alia Bhatt. Other participants included Varun Dhawan with Sidharth Malhotra, Kajol with Rani Mukherjee, Vicky Kaushal and Kiara Advani, Aditya Roy Kapur with Arjun Kapoor, Ajay Devgan with Rohit Shetty and Sharmila Tagore with Saif Ali Khan.
The season also welcomed veteran actors Zeenat Aman and Neetu Kapoor. Digital producers Tanmay Bhatt, Danish Sait, Kusha Kapila and Sumukhi Suresh attended the closing ceremony.
Other projects are in the pipeline.
Johar also confirmed that his 2006 film Never say goodbye Will be adapted into a longer series.