Karan Johar Recalls Fighting With Aditya Chopra Over Sex Scenes Between Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

Karan Johar’s Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna was one of the most poignant films from his extensive filmography. It featured Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Preity Zinta and Abhishek Bachchan and depicted a complex story of two troubled marriages waiting to implode. Now Karan Johar has recalled an argument that brewed between him and Aditya Chopra over the depiction of adultery and sex scenes between Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukerji. Johar also admitted that Aditya Chopra might have been right about his stance.

During a conversation with Anupama Chopra on her podcast All About Movies, they talked about the representation of intimacy in Bollywood which led to both of them discussing the said scene from Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. Karan Johar recalled, “Oh dear, I don’t think I’ll ever get over that,” the filmmaker said. “There’s a story about that. I was shooting that sequence, and I was at this big location that was snowed out, and Adi called me. He said, ‘Listen, I’ve been thinking about it for the last couple of days, and it’s very strongly in my head. I don’t think they should have sex. I feel like India will not accept it. They should come to the point, and retract, because they’re guilty about it’.”

The filmmaker further explained that since he had lost his father, he felt rebellious as ever since he wouldn’t have let him go ahead with something like this. Karan Johar shared, “I was like, ‘No, I’m going to do it. How can you be in a relationship and not have sex?’ So, we had this big fight over the phone, and I was rebellious about it. Much later, when I sat down with the film, and I thought about it, and I think back and feel that he was right. Not optically or anything, but commercially. I feel the country would’ve been far more receptive of the love story had they not gone ahead with a physically intimate relationship.”

One would easily remember Karan Johar’s statement at a press event in 2016 where he had expressed that Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna was a flawed film. He had shared, “I will always regret some things… I think Kabhi Alvida has some of my favourite moments, personally, as a filmmaker. I regret… I think it’s a flawed film. And I think the mistakes in that film are entirely mine. I think I tried to do two things; I tried to do something fresh, and interesting, and ground-breaking, but halfway through I also got scared. So just like my sun sign, which is Gemini, I became two people. And I think I should’ve just been one person, with one solid conviction.”

Released in 2006, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna was a musical romantic drama that became the highest grossing Indian film of all time overseas at the time of its release. It also starred Amitabh Bachchan, Kirron Kher, Ahsaas Channa as well as Kajol, John Abraham, Ayan Mukerji in special cameos.