Love working with youngsters: Karan Johar

The film-maker says that while his decision to work with young directors and launch new faces has paid off, it wasn’t a calculated one

Last year, as a producer, Karan Johar backed three films — Hasee Toh Phasee, 2 States (co-produced with Sajid Nadiadwala) and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. All three projects were helmed by young, first-time directors — Vinil Mathew, Abhishek Varman and Shashank Khaitan respectively.

Karan-Johar-in-a-Bombay-Velvet-still

While the move has paid off for Karan, the film-maker insists that it wasn’t a calculated one. "It just happened. I like working with first-time directors. They are hungry and eager to show their work. I also feel that the younger generation is easy to deal with. It’s not like I am consciously moving towards working on youth-centric movies," he elaborates.

Karan says that he’s aware that the youth is a major driving force for Bollywood, since film content aimed at their age bracket is universal and tends to always do well. "The profit generated from all three films has been tremendous. This proves that if you hit the right notes with the younger generation, the results will be amazing," he says.

Incidentally, Karan’s last biggest hit as a director was also a youth-centric film — Student Of The Year (2012). The film launched the acting careers of Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt and Sidharth Malhotra. "Many people were apprehensive about why I was launching newcomers. But I have given the industry three new talents," he adds.