Karan Johar on being isolated as a kid for being too feminine: Wasn't boy enough

India Today

a day ago

Director Karan Johar recently opened up on his struggle with gaining acceptance among the kids from his age group. He recalled how he was not often included in sports teams for being 'too feminine'.Karan, in an interview with Jay Shetty, on his YouTube channel said, "I was told I was, you know, more feminine than I should be. I walked differently. I ran differently. I spoke differently. My choices in life, my hobbies in life, were different."advertisementHe further said, "So whenever I went down, you know we lived in like apartment blocks, and when you went down, it was the thing that all the kids in the apartment block would come down and play in the evenings, and I wanted to belong."
"I wanted to be part of the football team. I wanted to play cricket with the boys. But nobody chose me because I wasn't good enough. You know, I wasn't sporty enough. I was not boy enough or man enough. So when you ask me what I wanted to be, the first thing at that age was that I wanted to belong," the 'Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani' director went on."The very first part of my formative years, my teenage years, was just to belong. And no one told me then that you don't have to. You can be your own person. That guidance, that nurturing, that philosophy of life wasn't given to me at that point in time. And I remember the particular moment when my mother sat me down, and I was 12, because I was going through a really rough time. I wanted to change schools. I wanted to because I felt I was being ragged in and around. And I still went back to the same school. I didn't change schools," Karan added.Karan is the son of late producer Yash Johar and Dharma Productions' co-producer Hiroo Yash Johar.The director-producer recently backed 'Dhadak 2' with Siddhant Chaturvedi and Triptii Dimri. The film, directed by Shazia Iqbal is scheduled to release on August 1, 2025.- EndsTrending Reel