Twitter user blames Karan Johar films for ‘perpetuating stereotypes against gay people’, Apurva Asrani reacts

Apurva Asrani calls Karan Johar's Dostana 'damaging' as he responds to Twitter user blaming director's films for perpetuating ‘stereotypes about gay people’.

Earlier this month, editor-writer Apurva Asrani slammed filmmaker Karan Johar after an old video of him talking about trying to sabotage actor Anushka Sharma's career surfaced online. Now, Apurva has once again tweeted about Karan Johar, and labelled his films Dostana (2008) and Student Of The Year (2012) as 'damaging'. Apurva, who has been actively tweeting about ongoing same-sex marriage Supreme Court hearing, responded to a Twitter user, who blamed Karan Johar's movies for 'perpetuating certain stereotypes about the LGBTQ+ community'.

Apurva Asrani slams Karan Johar's film Dostana featuring John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan.

The tweet read, "I will also blame Karan Johar's movies for perpetuating certain stereotypes about the LGBTQ+ community, particularly through the use of certain characters and comedic elements". Reacting to it, Apurva Asrani said that not only Karan, 'ridicule' of gay people was a trend in Bollywood films. While criticising some of Karan's movies, Apurva said the filmmaker had also backed a 'sensitive' movie such as Kapoor & Sons (2016).

On Friday, Apurva tweeted, “Not just Karan Johar, it was a trend in Bollywood to ridicule and caricature gay people. But thankfully that has ended a while ago. As damaging for (rainbow flag emoji) as Dostana and Student Of The Year were, he also made Kapoor & Sons, which was more sensitive.”

Apurva Asrani calls Kagan Johar's Dostana and Student Of The Year 'damaging'.

Kapoor & Sons, directed by Shakun Batra and backed by Karan Johar, explored themes of a dysfunctional family and homosexuality. It featured Rishi Kapoor, Ratna Pathak Shah, Rajat Kapoor, Fawad Khan, Sidharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt. It received critical acclaim, and also performed well at the box office. Meanwhile, in Dostana, Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham pretended to be a gay couple to get an apartment. In Student of the Year, Rishi Kapoor played the role of a gay dean.

In a series of tweets, Apurva also talked about the the top court hearing arguments on pleas seeking marriage equality. The Supreme Court is hearing at least 15 petitions regarding the demand for marriage equality in India. Calling it an 'anxious time', Apurva tweeted on Thursday, "It's an anxious time for us all. The straight peeps won't get the intensity of what we are going through as sincerely as they may try. But we are in this together."

In another tweet, he also asked people to leave the LGBTQ+ community alone and let people make their 'personal choices'. Apurva tweeted, "My logic is simple, as long as no one is interfering in your personal choices and as long as their choices are not harming you, leave them alone. Maybe we don't understand many things yet, especially about an individual's struggle for identity.