Twitter user accuses Karan Johar’s films of ‘perpetuating stereotypes against gay people’, Apurva Asrani responds

Award-winning editor-writer Apurva Asrani has called renowned filmmaker Karan Johar’s films Student Of The Year (2012) and Dostana (2008) “damaging.”

He shared his thoughts in response to a Twitter user who accused Johar's films of “perpetuating certain stereotypes about the LGBTQ+ community.”

“I will also blame Karan Johar's movies for perpetuating certain stereotypes about the LGBTQ+ community, particularly through the use of certain characters and comedic elements,” read the tweet.

Reacting to it, Asrani said that not only Karan, “ridicule” of gay people was a trend in Bollywood films. While he slammed some of Johar's films, Apurva said the filmmaker had also backed a “sensitive” film like Kapoor & Sons (2016).

“Not just Karan Johar, it was a trend in Bollywood to ridicule and caricature gay people. But thankfully that has ended a while ago. As damaging for (rainbow flag emoji) as Dostana and Student Of The Year were, he also made Kapoor & Sons, which was more sensitive,” the editor-writer said in his tweet on Friday.

For those not in the know, Kapoor & Sons released in 2016 and turned out to be a commercial success. The film starred Sidharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, and Fawad Khan in lead roles. Khan played the character of a gay author in the film. The film was praised for its sensitive portrayal of  homosexuality.

Stay tuned to this space for more updates!