Karan Johar made headlines last year for his drastic weight loss journey. His transformation sparked discussion about the producer's alleged use of Ozempic, a fat-loss drug. The filmmaker, however, dismissed the rumours, claiming that people did not know the whole story.
Karan has now opened up about how he shed those extra kilos. Interestingly, his mother, Hiroo Johar, was the first to call him out for being overweight.
Karan, in a candid interaction with actor Aadar Jain and his wife Alekha on The Manyavar Shaadi Show, revealed, “My dad was in delusion land about me. He thought that I had puppy fat, it'll go away, he's so handsome. But my mother used to disagree and say, ‘What are you saying, Yash? He's so fat, so large.'”
The filmmaker added, “He (Karan Johar's father) wanted me to become a hero, and my mother used to roll her eyes, saying no way he's capable or should be a hero. She always used to call me out. Punjabi moms aren't always deluded."
Karan recalled that he decided to lose weight during his college years. The decision was taken after he realised “everyone's way thinner" than him. The producer followed a high-protein Atkins diet, but it backfired.
"I was doing that Atkins diet. Once I did it for a month, and I fell sick. I still remember that I was in my Accounts class during college. I fainted in that class because I was on this diet. That was the end of the diet,” remembered Karan.
“My mother banned it, and she had no idea I was doing it. It's high protein. You could have a nine-egg cheese omelette, only protein, no bread and nothing. You could've fried chicken, but it was harsher,” he said.
Refuting his Ozempic intake speculations, Karan explained, “Contrary to what people think, I took Ozempic… I'm not. What happened is, there were a few intolerances that I discovered when I went to Vivamayr (a medical health resort).”
“I did my kinesiology test and I realised that I'm acutely gluten and lactose-intolerant. I actually didn't realise… I was eating roti and not rice. But in reality, rice and potatoes are my friends,” shared Karan, adding that he was also diagnosed with thyroid and put on medication.
His weight dropped after he cut out gluten, reduced sugar, and switched to almond milk.