Karan Johar says some people from Bollywood are being negative about Brahmastra

Karan Johar spoke about some people from the film industry ‘being negative’ about Brahmastra. While the filmmaker did not take any names, recently director Vivek Agnihotri and actor Kangana Ranaut, among others, had questioned the box office figures of the Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt-starrer.

Karan Johar spoke about Brahmastra’s many delays, on being stressed about the Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor film, and much more in a recent interview. The filmmaker, who backed the Ayan Mukerji film, said he had a sleepless night before Brahmastra’s release on September 9. He also said the movie got ‘mixed reviews’ at the start as the audiences did not know how to react to it. Karan further said that sometimes ‘negative people’ from the industry do not want a film to work, and celebrate ‘ruination of a film’.

Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt is backed by Karan Johar's Dharma Productions. 

Brahmastra Part One – Shiva had reportedly grossed ₹425 crore worldwide in just under four weeks. It is the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year and the third-highest-grossing Indian film of 2022, behind only Yash-starrer KGF: Chapter 2 and SS Rajamouli’s RRR. Alongside Alia and Ranbir, the film also stars Amitabh Bachchan and Nagarjuna, and features Shah Rukh Khan in an extended cameo.

When asked if he was under pressure before the release of Brahmastra, Karan Johar told Bollywood Hungama in a new interview, “I was humongously stressed. The night prior I could sleep a wink, and I was not able to tell Ayan this, or Ranbir or Alia, because I felt like I had to be like ‘yay, we’ve done this, it’s great, it is going to be massive and don’t worry’. There were all kinds of mixed reviews coming up (after the release) and people were saying either it was amazing or the opposite of it. I felt it (Brahmastra) was such new animal in the jungle, people were having adverse opinions.”

The filmmaker also spoke about some people within the film industry, who were ‘being negative’ towards the film. Karan said it was ‘never a good thing’ to celebrate a film’s failure at the box office. “While I have no problems with everyone’s opinions, I sometimes feel sad, because within the industry we have some types of people, who are working for the industry and are with the industry for years… you can be critical but being negative is not nice. Critical we will accept with open arms, it is very imperative, everyone needs that policing. But I feel sometimes, some people push that from being critical to being negative. Sometime I feel we are all part of the same industry, so don’t you want this film to work… Sometimes people within the industry, who call themselves members of the media also, celebrate ruination of a film. I feel that is never a good thing,” Karan said in the same interview.

Karan also spoke about how at one point it had become an ‘industry joke’ and people would wonder if Brahmastra ‘was ever coming out’. He also praised director Ayan Mukerji and his team for braving through the multiple delays the film faced, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, among other factors. Karan said he felt he was ‘fathering’ Brahmastra as he had been a part of Alia’s career, and Ayan’s career, and Ranbir had worked in many films, like Wake Up Sid, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, with Karan’s Dharma Productions.