Not coffee but lunch with Karan this time

Compliment him for his dance at Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 6’s grand finale and Karan Johar grins saying, “Thank you”. While one feels that he must have taken days to learn the right footwork, he nullifies the thought claiming, “It just took me half an hour.

 I am a born natural dancer (sic),” shares KJ with Metrolife.

On his recent trip to the City, to promote his production The Lunchbox, the producer-director-actor confessed that as an audience, the film “makes me want to be in love and in a relationship. And because I am not, it makes me feel sad. Apart from that, it makes you feel completely famished and you feel like putting your hand and start eating from the dabba!”

Routing the conversation from the food to his romantic films, Karan says, “From the perspective of love stories, The Lunchbox is quintessentially mainstream and has all the accessibility for every audience member to connect with. Yet, within the parameters of a love story, there are moments which are heartbreaking and beautifully narrated,” he says adding that the film is “appetising in various ways. After watching it, you feel, this is the kind of love you want to have in your life!”

Having directed romantic stories which have been larger-than-life, Karan chooses to back more substantial stories as a producer. “Partially, it is a conscious decision particularly because there is a certain level of generalisation when it comes to my work which I want to break. Whether it is my decision to direct Bombay Talkies or present The Lunchbox, I choose films that go with my sensibility. Its unfortunate that it is not the perception out there and today we are all in an age where ‘perception is reality’ but there are a lot of steps that Dharma Productions and I are trying to take to produce and back different kinds of films.”

“I hate the word ‘different’ but we want to support cinema that is true to the world and is not cluttered or polluted or corrupted by some from the mainstream. I, me, myself have done so and I love everything about the movies I have made,” says the director in him who feels that he cannot make movies like The Lunchbox.

“I am envious of the simplicity with which Ritesh (Batra) has made his film but substitute it for acknowledgement to raise my own bar. If you can’t beat them, join them!” This is the opinion after mentoring newcomers.

“I started mentoring and producing very early in my career and I am fortunate to have a happy bunch of filmmakers making films for us at Dharma Productions. I am teaching them the mistakes I made, learning every thing that I don’t know and they do and sometimes young voices are uncluttered. That first time feeling is something that I can’t build in myself anymore,” regrets the multi-faceted man.

Ask him about Coffee with Karan and he retorts, “That is far more important than any of my movies,” with another grin!