Filmmaker Karan Johar has taken a strong stand against a section of podcasters. He believes these shows thrive on controversy and allow guests to make offensive comments about people in the film industry. In his note, the director also expressed disappointment with astrologers and psychics who sensationalise their appearances by making disturbing predictions about celebrities.
What's Happening
- On Saturday, Karan Johar took to Instagram stories to call out what he described as a problematic "sub-culture" in the podcast space. Without taking names, he accused certain platforms of deliberately inviting irrelevant guests in order to attract attention through their controversial statements.
- He wrote, "While I have utmost respect for credible and respectable members of the media! One sub-culture of podcasters (basically chat shows with new age terminology) who have emerged from the woodworks... woods that no GPS can locate... they invite guests who have nothing to lose. Who haven't been invited since World War 2, and those guests spew venom and say the most disrespectful things about hardworking and legendary members of our fraternity!"
- Taking his criticism further, Karan slammed shows that feature astrologers and psychics making frightening predictions about actors. He remarked, "This needs to stop! Also, psychics and astrologers giving awful and scary revelations, even about people's impending death, is both insensitive and disgusting! Free speech? Yes. Clickbait for followers? No!!"
Background
Karan Johar's comments come at a time when podcasts have become increasingly influential in shaping public narratives about Bollywood. While some platforms foster healthy discussion, others have been accused of chasing views through provocative content.
On the professional front, he recently co-produced Dhadak 2, starring Triptii Dimri and Siddhant Chaturvedi. He will also appear in Aryan Khan's directorial debut The Ba***ds of Bollywood, premiering on Netflix on September 18.
