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When Karan Johar Faced Saroj Khan's Fury On 'DDLJ' Sets: 'I Was Scared For My Life'
The filmmaker talks about a goof-up on the sets of 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge', and how he narrowly escaped Saroj Khan's wrath.
Before Karan Johar became a household name, he was a young assistant director finding his footing on Hindi film sets—learning the ins and outs of cinema, constantly problem-solving. It’s those formative years that have made him the filmmaker he is today. In conversation with The Hollywood Reporter India, Johar shares an anecdote from the sets of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), where a last-minute costume crisis during the filming of Mehendi Laga Ke Rakhna led him straight into the wrath of the legendary choreographer, Saroj Khan.
The crisis began with a demand for scarves for background dancers, at the eleventh hour. “Red cloth... they wanted that. This was a demand given at the last minute,” he explains. “Now, we only had so much cloth that I found,” he adds. With more dancers than fabric, Johar attempted what he describes as a “clever” fix. “I, to save the situation, went to Jojo, Saroj ji’s assistant, and very cleverly said, you know, Jojo, I think accha lagega (it will look good), unko bolo, apna ek haath pocket mein rakho (tell them to keep one hand in their pockets), stylish lagega, cool lagega (it will look cool, it will look stylish). Because I didn’t have any more cloth,” he laughs.
For a brief moment, his “solution’ worked—until Khan arrived.
The choreographer was quick to notice that something was amiss. Once she clued into who was responsible, she reprimanded Johar in front of everyone on-set. “She literally pushed me,” he recalls, in equal parts fear and admiration. “She said, ‘Tu jahaan jaana chaahe, ja, Goregaon ja, laal kapda la, warna main shoot nahi karungi (go wherever you need to go, go to Goregaon, bring the red cloth, otherwise I will not shoot)’.”
What ensued after, he says, is pure chaos. “I still remember the visual of us running on the streets of Goregaon saying, ‘laal kapda! Laal kapda! (Red cloth! Red cloth!)’” Panic set in. “I was scared for my life,” he laughs. “I was traumatised, traumatised, you know, and she was really scary. Like, she was the best,” he continues, candidly, “She somehow did not like me. She never liked me."
Johar adds that despite being new to sets, he was prone to giving his two cents on costume design, even in the presence of veterans on-set, much to their annoyance. However, he says, this was often a result of his love for fashion, and his pulse on trends. It is no wonder, then, that style is now such an inextricable part of his filmography. As he puts it himself: “Can you imagine, I’m a filmmaker, and I have so many costume stories?”