Karan Johar

It swept most of the major awards at the 44th Filmfare Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and all four acting awards.

Karan Kumar Johar (born Rahul Kumar Johar; 25 May 1972), often informally referred to as KJo, is an Indian filmmaker and television personality, who primarily works in Hindi cinema.

He has launched the careers of several successful actors and filmmakers under his company Dharma Productions.

Johar was born on 25 May 1972 in Mumbai, India to film producer Yash Johar, founder of Dharma Productions and Hiroo Johar.

He has Punjabi Hindu ancestry from his father's side, and Sindhi Hindu ancestry from his mother's side.

He studied at the Green Lawns High School.

In his autobiography, An Unsuitable Boy, Johar recounts that he took the entrance test of the elite all-boys boarding school, The Doon School in Dehradun, but scored a zero in mathematics.

This led the then headmaster Gulab Ramchandani to write a very "emotional letter" to Johar's mother, declining admission.

After Green Lawns, he attended H.R. College of Commerce and Economics, both in Mumbai.

Johar started his career in the entertainment industry as an actor, when he played the role of Shrikant in the 1989 Doordarshan serial Indradhanush.

As a child, he was influenced by commercial Indian cinema: He cites Raj Kapoor, Yash Chopra and Sooraj Barjatya as his inspirations.

Johar entered the film industry as an assistant director and actor on his cousin, Aditya Chopra's Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), which is regarded as a landmark in Hindi cinema.

The son of producer Yash Johar, he made his directorial debut with the romantic comedy-drama Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), which earned him the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment (as director), the Filmfare Award for Best Director and the Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay.

He made his own directorial debut with the romantic comedy-drama Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998).

The first half of the film centers on a college love triangle between an insensitive boy (Shah Rukh Khan), his tomboyish best friend (Kajol), and the prettiest girl at the college (Rani Mukerji), while the second half centers on the now-widowed boy's attempt to reconnect with his best friend who is now engaged to marry a businessman (Salman Khan).

The film became a major blockbuster at the box-office and received positive reviews from critics.

Writing for Planet Bollywood, critic Anish Khanna commented that "Johar makes an impressive directorial debut, has a good script sense, and knows how to make a film with S-T-Y-L-E."

It won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.

His next films, the family drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001) and the musical romantic drama Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), were both major commercial successes in both domestic and overseas markets.

Johar achieved his breakthrough with the ensemble family drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001).

The film starred Amitabh Bachchan as an egotistical rich industrialist, Jaya Bachchan as his compassionate wife, and Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan as their two sons.

It also featured Kajol and Kareena Kapoor as sisters from a lower-class family who become the love interests of Khan and Roshan respectively.

The film became Johar's second consecutive major blockbuster at the box-office and received positive reviews from critics.

Critic Taran Adarsh commented that Johar "confirms the fact that he is the brightest in film firmament. The premise [of the film] is simple, but it is the storytelling that deserves the highest marks."

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... earned him his second nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Director.

He hosts a television talk show, Koffee with Karan since 2004, a dating show What the Love! and a radio show Calling Karan, and appeared as a judge on competition reality shows Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and India's Got Talent.

For a time, Johar followed numerology, creating film titles in which the first word and a number of others in the title began with the letter K. After watching the 2006 comedy-drama Lage Raho Munna Bhai which was critical of numerology, Johar decided to stop this practice.

Discussing his sexual orientation, Johar said "Everybody knows what my sexual orientation is. I don't need to scream it out. If I need to spell it out, I won't only because I live in a country where I could possibly be jailed for saying this".

Johar's third directorial venture was the ensemble musical romantic drama Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), which dealt with the controversial subject of marital infidelity and dysfunctional relationships set against the backdrop of non-resident Indians (NRIs) living in New York City.

The film's plot follows a washed-up athlete (Shah Rukh Khan), whose frustration with his wife (Preity Zinta) results in an extramarital affair with a family friend (Rani Mukerji), a schoolteacher who is also unhappy with her marriage to her childhood friend (Abhishek Bachchan).

The film emerged as Johar's third consecutive major blockbuster at the box-office and emerged as the highest-grossing Indian film of all time in overseas markets at the time.

It received highly positive reviews from critics who praised Johar's departure from the directorial style of his first two films.

His social drama My Name Is Khan (2010) earned him his second Filmfare Award for Best Director.

In February 2017, Johar became father to twins (a boy and a girl) through surrogacy.

The twins were born at Masrani Hospital in Mumbai.

Johar named his son Yash after his father, and his daughter Roohi named by rearranging his mother's name Hiroo.

Johar produced the spy thriller Raazi (2018) and the biopic Shershaah (2021), both of which won him the Filmfare Award for Best Film, with the latter also earning him the National Film Award – Special Jury Award (as producer).

These, along with other films he has produced or directed under his company, have established him as one of the leading filmmakers in Hindi cinema.

Johar has also ventured into other avenues of the entertainment industry.

The recipient of several accolades, including two National Film Awards and seven Filmfare Awards, he has been honoured with the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2020.