Karan Johar, naughty@40

Karan Johar, master of many trades in Bollywood, turns 40 today. In his almost 20 year long career, he's been an actor, a writer, a director, a producer and a TV personality. He is known to have many friends in Bollywood, many of whom will be at his grand birthday party tonight, and he is also a Svengali of sorts, having been responsible for discovering and promoting much of the film industry's newer talent. Ahead, Karan's journey from sidekick actor to high powered director.

Karan johar, the son of film producer and the founder of Dharma Productions, Yash Johar, was born on May 25, 1972, in Mumbai. He studied at the Greenlawns High School and attended H R College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai. He also received a Masters degree in French.

Karan's first job in Bollywood was as an actor, playing SRK's best friend in the hugely successful Dilwale Dilhaniya Le Jayenge. He was also the assistant director on the film and helped director Aditya Chopra in writing the screenplay.

For a long time, Karan styled SRK in movies like Dil To Pagal Hai, Duplicate, Mohabbatein, Main Hoon Na, Veer-Zaara and Om Shanti Om.

At the age of 25, in 1998, he made his directorial debut with the blockbuster movie Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Rani Mukerji, He also wrote the story and the screenplay for ehe film, which won a National Award and eight Filmfare Awards. It was also the highest grossing Indian movie of the year both at home and abroad and was declared an all time blockbuster by Box Office India.

Karan's second film as director was the family drama, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham(2001), featuring an ensemble cast of Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan. The casting was considered a coup of sorts, with the sheer number of superstars sharing screen time. The film was a huge success and became the highest-grossing film of 2001 and went on to win five Filmfare Awards.

Apart from directing, Karan Johar also became the main producer of Dharma Productions.

He said, "I wanted my production house to walk before running. I need to be streamlined, build my infrastructure. I do want to make all kinds of movies because I have watched all kinds of movies."

In 2003 he wrote and produced Kal Ho Naa Ho, which was directed by Nikhil Advani. The movie, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Jaya Bachchan, Preity Zinta and Saif Ali Khan, became a box office success in India and the highest grossing film overseas that year. It also won eight Filmfare awards and two National awards.

In 2004, Karan made his small screen debut as host of the celebrity chat show, Koffee with Karan, in which he interviewed Bollywood celebrities. It became the first English entertainment show to score huge ratings in India. He returned again with the second season of the show in 2007 and the third season in 2012, after the release of his film My Name Is Khan. He also did a show in 2010 called Lift Kara De which introduced nineteen of the biggest stars of Bollywood to their biggest fans.

In 2005, Karan produced the movie Kaal which was directed by Soham Shah, his assistant director from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.The very same year, after taking a four-year break from directing, he began working on his third film as a director and fourth film as writer, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. The movie dealt with the sensitive subject of extra marital affairs, and starred usual suspects SRK, Amitabh Bachcan, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukerji, as well as Abhishek Bachchan. The film opened to strong box office numbers and became the sixth highest grossing film of the year in India and the highest grossing overseas film of all time. It was eventually nominated for, and won, a slew of awards.

The year 2009 saw him producing two films, Ayan Mukerji's coming of age romantic drama Wake Up Sid and the thriller Kurbaan. In November 2009, he wrapped his fourth film as director, My Name Is Khan, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, eight years after their last outing in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. My Name is Khan set cash registers ringing in India and abroad and was screened as part of the 60th Berlin International Film Festival's official selection. It also earned Karan his second Best Director award at the Filmfare Awards.

In 2010 he co-produced the Hindi remake of the Hollywood movie Stepmom, called We Are Family featuring Kajol, Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal in the lead roles, with Sony Pictures. The same year, he co-produced the Imran Khan and Sonam Kapoor film I Hate Luv Storys with UTV Motion Pictures. The film went on to become a box office hit.

In 2012 he produced the critically acclaimed remake of Agneepath, with Hrithik Roshan playing Amitabh Bachchan's role, and Sanjay Dutt filling in for Danny Denzongpa. He also produced the 2012 romantic comedy, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, starring Kareena Kapoor and Imran Khan.

This year Kjo will be returning to direction with Student of The Year, joint production between his own Dharma Productions and SRK's Red Chillies Entertainment. Karan has been responsible for introducing new directors like Punit Malhotra, Ayaan Mukherjee and Siddharth Malhotra.

Here is wishing the multi-talented director a very happy birthday.