Karan Johar, who was rumored to make a movie on the bestselling novel “The Shiva Trilogy”, says that he didn’t adapt the book to the film out of fear of repurcussions.
“Fear of repercussions was one of the reasons for not adapting Amish Thripathi’s Shiva Trilogy,” he said in an interaction with the audience at “The Huddle”, an interactive event with personalities from different walks of life, organised by The Hindu.
Shiva Trilogy was the fastest selling book series in Indian publishing history.
Johar also said he had to change the lyrics of many songs because of objections raised by some sections of the people. “We even have to consider if people will be offended by the lyrics of songs,” he said.
Replying to a query, Johar said he was deeply disturbed and felt apologetic on putting out a video saying he was an Indian as his film ‘Ae Di Hai Mushkil’ was steeped in a controversy as it featured Pakistani actors. “I was advised to put a video saying I am Indian, and love my country. I feel apologetic that I had to do that, it was something deeply disturbing,” he said.
Johar further said the delay in film’s release for few days costs the producers dearly. Stand-up comedian Mukul Kesavan spoke about ransacking of Bhandarkar archive to make a point against a researcher. “Sometimes you wonder which country this is?” he said.
Talking about the shades of film industry, Johar rued there is no solidarity in film fraternity, but was hopeful of getting there. “Very unfortunate that I don’t see a sense of support and solidarity in the industry. Only when one is victimised does one feel that we need to stand up for others,” he said.