A few weeks ago, a journalist wrote a piece for Arre, in which she asked Karan Johar to “for God’s sake, come out already”. The tone of the article was condescending – the use of the word “sweetheart” rankled in particular – and I couldn’t believe that someone felt entitled to another person’s admission of their sexuality. Not least because she complained about the “hints” left about Karan’s sexuality on Koffee With Karan and elsewhere – “the longest coming-out party ever,” according to the title.
I don’t think it’s a “long coming-out party” so much as a man seemingly becoming more comfortable opening up about his sexuality. Which is great, sure – but not anything he owes us. And you can understand the hesitancy, too: he’s been dragged into several controversies in his life, most of them for absolutely stupid reasons, so of course he’d want to avoid another one. (Which is why it’s especially ridiculous that the writer of the Arre piece said “nobody will arrest you if you come out” – I’m sorry, do we live in the same country?)
Now, Karan has opened up more about his sexuality and all the conjecture surrounding it as part of his upcoming biography, An Unsuitable Boy, with Penguin India. Here’s what he 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. Which is why I Karan Johar will not say the three words that possibly everybody knows about me. […] The reason I don’t say it out aloud is simply that I don’t want to be dealing with the FIRs. I’m very sorry. I have a job, I have a commitment to my company, to my people who work for me; there are over a hundred people that I’m answerable to. I’m not going to sit in the courts because of ridiculous, completely bigoted individuals who have no education, no intelligence, who go into some kind of rapture for publicity.
He says he’s now at the point where he’s “not apologetic” about who he is, and he is not embarrassed for himself:
I’ve stood on a platform like AIB Roast, and I had half of the people supporting me and the other half dissing me for doing this. But at the end of the day, I did what I did, and I did it with my mother in the front row, and screw you if you have a problem with that. The only thing that bothered me was when people stood on the high moral ground and said, `Why was your mother in the front row?’ But she’s cool…Do you know that I tried to stop her from coming but she insisted? So the thing I told her was, `Mum, laugh. Do not squirm and do not be embarrassed for me because I’m not embarrassed for myself.’ If they’re going to make jokes about my sexual orientation, I’m okay about it. I’m not embarrassed about who I am. I’m not apologetic. […] So if you have an opinion about my sexuality, then screw you. I don’t care.
It’s heartening to hear that someone’s not embarrassed or apologetic to be himself. I just wish that, as a country, we can catch up to this – and stop being a bunch of hateful, bigoted individuals. And while we’re at it, let’s stop feeling entitled, too.
You can read the entire excerpt here.