Gossip pays
Despite most of his recent films failing at the boxoffice, Karan Johar continues to titillate audiences through his TV show. V. Gangadhar wonders if such shows can save KJo

FOR some reason or other, gossip and bitchiness had always been associated with women. Was that because women talked more than men? There was a time when Hedda Hopper, Louella Parsons and Sheila Graham were the Gossip Queens of Hollywood and our own Devyani Chaubal titillated her ‘Star & Style’ readers with inimitable Bollywood gossip. Devyani’s growing narcissism perhaps led to the decline of her column but she was quite devastating in her prime.

Gossip columnists were normally film journalists. Strangely enough the current ‘gossiper’ was not only a male but also a leading film producer-director and publicity hound, Karan Johar. No page 3, particularly in Bombay Times was ever complete without two or three items on Karan Johar. A recent issue said Johar had recruited two new faces for the next film, he was directing. Next day, there was a denial on the issue. So on both the days, Johar made front page news!

Sections of the Mumbai tabloid media used up superlatives while reporting on Johar despite most of his recent films failing miserably.

In spite of publicity barrage, his films My Name is Khan, I Hate Luv Stories and We Are Family disappeared from theatres without any trace. Yet, we were bombarded with details that My Name is Khan was top grosser in countries like Upper Volta, Southern Sudan, Papua New Guinea selected region in the North and South Poles and so on. Tabloids suffering from Joharmania never gave up. The series of flops must have wounded the king-size ego of Karan Johar and led to a feeling of frustration. Insiders in the industry felt this could be reasons for his TV show, Koffee with Karan becoming more and more bitchy. The anchor was taking his frustration out on the stars, even if some of them were his pals. Koffee with Karan was a pretty jolly good show to start with the participants exchanging jokes and praising one another. The ratings were average, but since the bitchiness factor went out, so did the ratings. No subject was taboo, including the stars’ sexual preferences and libido levels.

In one of the encounters when asked what product her former boyfriend Ranbir Kapoor should endorse, Deepika Padukone, now the ‘steady’ of Chhota tycoon, Siddarth Mallaya, replied ‘a box of condoms’ while the anchor sniggered. On Katrina Kaif, who was now much above her in success and talent, Deepika said she would like to go through Katrina’s passport, a reference to her foreign origin and work permit status. Or was it sheer professional jealousy?

The ‘Velvet Claws’ and honey tongues were very much there when Priyanka Chopra met Kareena Kapoor for Koffee. Both vying to catch up with Katrina, Kareena asked Priyanka very politely where she had got her accent from. Priyanka, who had studied abroad, was quick to retort, "From where her boyfriend got his!"

When asked what she would steal off the computers of a number of stars starting from Amitabh Bachchan and the turn of Kareena came, Priyanka innocently asked, ‘Does she have a computer?’

Even while sounding extremely silly for millions of educated Indians, such silly questions titillated sections of the people. But Bollywood insiders pointed out this star ‘chumminess’ was all a fa`E7ade and could lead to serious misunderstandings within the industry.

Rishi Kapoor objected to references to son Ranbir by Deepika and walked out of Karan Johar’s film, a remake of Bachchan’s Agneepath. Some cracks were already visible. Arjun Rampal, who was firmly in the Karan Johar-Shah Rukh Khan camp and appeared in Koffee show recently, walked out and signed a film with Pritish Nandy Productions. The feud between Pritish Nandy Communications and the SRK-Karan Johar clique started some six years back when Karan and Gauri Khan allegedly gate-crashed into a private screening of a PNC film Shabd and were told to leave. This led to Shah Rukh and Gauri boycotting all film awards functions hosted by PNC and the awardees, hurt by the boycott, not working with PNC. And now Arjun Rampal was working with the enemy because he was unhappy with the concept of the Koffee show.

The show acquired such a reputation that stars like Aamir Khan and Rekha were unwilling to appear. The younger stars appeared more willing but very soon they would realise that randy jokes and indecent proposals about their own colleagues could boomerang on them and affect their own careers.

And in the long run, in his heroic attempt to titillate audiences, Karan Johar could find himself with no stars for his forthcoming films, which could inflate his already high flop ratings.