Karan Johar’s talk show Koffee With Karan 7’s latest episode saw two superstars Akshay Kumar and Samantha Ruth Prabhu spilling beans about their personal and professional lives. The hour-long episode saw the Family Man 2 actress indulging in engaging conversations about her career, growth and even divorce with actor Naga Chaitanya. But, one particular exchange she had with host Karan Johar hasn’t gone down too well with some fans. Recently, Nayanthara fans accused Kaan Johar of throwing shade at Samantha’s co-star Nayanthara on the show.
At a point in the show, when Karan asked Samantha who she thought was the biggest female actor in the South is currently. Referring to her recent release Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal, the actor said, “Well, I just did a film with Nayanthara.” The Kushi actress implied that she thinks Nayanthara is the biggest actor across the four film industries in south India. However, Karan thinks otherwise as he responded, “Well, not in my list!” He then went on to refer to a recent list, brought out by Ormax Media, of top female actors in the country which had Samantha as the number one female actor in the country.
This has gotten the Aramm actress’ fans upset with the filmmaker, who said Karan Johar was ‘needlessly throwing shade’ at Nayanthara.
As reported by Hindustan Times, the exchange was shared on several social media platforms. A comment on Reddit read, “Isn’t Nayanthara super well established like Kareena or PC level in the south? Yeh Karan ka problem kya hai Bhai (What is Karan’s problem)?”
Many said Karan’s quick denial of Samantha’s compliment was rude and belittling to both actors.
The Love Action Drama star’s fans even pointed out that Karan’s next production Good Luck Jerry is actually a remake of Nayanthara-starrer Kolamaavu Kokila. Pointing on the same, a fan wrote, “KJo I hope you do realize your remake of Good Luck Jerry is a remake of Nayanthara’s film.”
Some of the fans even claimed that Karan is often passive-aggressive about the south film industries and their actors. “Why does he sound so jealous of the Southern Film industry all the time? Even for the blockbusters, he was very passive aggressive,” read one comment.
While some of the Reddit users were upset with Karan, at the same time, some Redditors defended the Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham director saying he was merely mentioning the Ormax list but conceded that it was weird how he chose to do it. One social media user wrote, “He was referring to the Ormax list where Samantha was first so he was trying to say Samantha is bigger than Nayanthara, which is also weird while she’s trying to actively compliment Nayanthara.”
Born as Diana Mariam Kurian, Nayanthara has been one of the leading female actors in the Tamil and Telugu film industries for years. She has often been featured in lists of the highest-paid actors in the country as well. Over the years, the ‘Lady Superstar’ has delivered blockbusters like Billa, Simha, Arrambam, Iru Murugan, Bigil,and Annaathee. Not only this, Nayanthara has also delivered several female-led hits, among which Maya is one of her notable films. The actress is currently shooting for Shah Rukh Khan co-starrer Jawaan which will hit the theatres in June 2023.
