Karan Johar hid his voice training from his father to avoid being called feminine.
Karan Johar discussed his struggle with bullying because of his feminine voice and behaviour. He shared how Secret Voice training helped him deal with the lack of awareness and counseling in the 1980s.
Director Karan Johar has openly discussed how being considered effeminate since childhood made him endure bullying, instilled insecurities and faced emotional struggles for a long time. At the age of 15, Karan revealed that he spent three years taking voice-coaching classes to improve his poor voice, a fact he kept hidden from his late father, producer Yash Johar.
The ‘Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Story’ director, while speaking to former Indian tennis player Sania Mirza on her YouTube podcast, ‘Serving It Up with Sania’, said, “I was fond of courses. I used to take courses all the time. I loved learning new things. Boys of my age used to play sports in those days and I was also learning cooking and even arranging fruits and flowers. I also did an import-export class. Those were the courses I was very passionate about. One of them was public speaking because I loved elocution and drama in school.”
The 53-year-old became aware of his feminine voice and intonation when his coach influenced him to take voice classes to make his voice more ‘baritone’-like. He continued, “The gentleman who ran the academy came to me immediately after the first two sessions and said, ‘You’re a very talented kid but your voice is like a girl. You have a very pure personality and you have a voice like a girl. And the world is harsh on men who speak like that. So can I help you get your voice into a baritone and make it sound like a man?’
The filmmaker-host also reflected on the lack of counseling and awareness during that time. “It was 1989. It was a very impressionable time for any kid. We were not aware, there was no awakening, there was no self awareness or counseling to help you. It was not an inclusive time. You were insecure, scared and anxious. So, I went with that advice and I did 3 years of voice coaching with her. I paid for it, I went three times a week for 2 hours every day, but I didn’t tell my dad because I felt like saying it. I was very ashamed of who I really was. I was also afraid that he would ask me the reason,” he added.
He emphasized that although his “progressive” father never questioned his methods and was “proud of everything he did”, he took the course because the coach insisted he needed it. “I wanted to do it because that coach told me to. The coach told me, ‘If you don’t look like a man you won’t be able to face the world with the confidence you need.’
Karan told, “So, I told my father that I was going to computer classes and took money from him to give it to my coach. For three years I took voice and walking coaching because I used to walk and run like a girl. I was 15 years old at that time and this continued till I was 18 or 19 years old.”
He said, “At 19, the funniest thing that happened was the computer came into my dad’s office and he said, ‘You’ve been doing this for three years, this is the computer.’ And I felt like I had never seen a computer in my life because I wasn’t taking computer classes. I told him I didn’t know what to do. They asked me what I’d been doing for three years, and I made some excuse and left.”
In the same podcast, Karan opened up about feeling lonely despite accepting his single status and admitted that he once longed for companionship.
His last directorial venture was ‘Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani’ starring Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Dharmendra, Shabana Azmi, Jaya Bachchan and Tota Roy Chowdhury.