KJo alone on B'day

The hordes of friends, well-wishers, and fans who call and message Karan Johar every year on his birthday on May 25 might not get a response from the gregarious director this year, like they usually do .

For the first time in his life, the 37-year-old director won’t be in Mumbai with family and friends to bring in his birthday. Karan, who is in an introspective mood, has voluntarily decided to be all alone this birthday.

Karan, who is currently in New York, has decided to shut out the world so that he can think about his life and future as a filmmaker.

He says, “I woke up one day here in New York to realise with a shock that I will be 38 in a few days. In two years I’ll hit the crucial 40s. Am I happy with the quality of my life and work? What kind of friends do I want to preserve in my life? And what sort of movies do I want to make?”

It’s for this precise reason that Karan has put on hold all plans to script his next film for which he had gone to New York in the first place.

“After My Name Is Khan I decided I’d never again do a fluffy film. But on second thoughts I needed a change of pace, so I thought I’d write a light film. But I wonder, do I have it in me to be light any more? I should let the young boys making films for my production company do all the light fun films, like Punit Malhotra’s I Hate Luv Storys, which I can’t direct at this stage of my life.”

For now, Karan doesn’t know what he’d like to direct. And until the churning within him stops, he won’t resume scripting his next film.

He refuses to comment on the speculation back home regarding his proposed film with Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor. He asks, “When there’s no script, no film, how can there be a cast?”

One thing Karan is sure of is that Shah Rukh Khan would continue to be a constant in his life, no matter how hard troublemakers try to drive a wedge in their friendship. “Ours is a non-wedge relationship,” he quips showing his trademark wicked sense of humour for the first time during this conversation.

Karan adds, “At the moment, for the first time, I’m enjoying being all alone here in New York just introspecting. I speak to my mom twice a day, and that’s all the connect with home I need at the moment.”

Undoubtedly this would be Karan’s most solitary birthday in all these years.

“I may not even surface that day. I just may choose to be somewhere very far away from the public eye. I’ve always been in company. For the first time on my birthday, I am enjoying my own company. It isn’t so bad after all,” he says.

(TOI)