Karan Johar calls Bollywood actors crazy with capital c: You open to Rs 5 crores and demand Rs 20 crores, how is that fair?

Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar is one personality who is in the public eye despite his world being behind the cameras. He has hosted many Bollywood actors over the years and worked with the A-listers in some way or the other. Having been in the industry since so long, the filmmaker now believes that every actor has turned crazy with the capital c.

Karan had previously pointed this out but continued on Masters’ Union podcast that many actors of today’s times have Rs. 5 crores opening but demand Rs. 20 crores. Being a producer, he wonders how is that fair to him or anyone else associated with the film.

“I might be murdered for saying this, but if you are opening to Rs 5 crore and you are asking me for Rs 20 crore, how is that fair? Delusion is the one disease that has no vaccination,” he famously said on the podcast.

Karan called many of them cuckoo and reasoned that these ‘stars’ feel that just because two of their films worked, it’s suddenly all me, myself, I.

The filmmaker once prided himself in launching newcomers. He achieved success in that till directing Student of The Year, through which he launched actors like Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. Even then, Karan reveals, the movie made him lose money.

Yash Chopra had once famously said that a film never fails, a budget does. Quoting him, Karan said that SOTY did that to him. Even though the movie was a hit, he lost a lot of money behind the budgeting of the film.

Today, Karan believes that launching newcomers is in itself a loss-making business because as much as people love seeing celebrities in real life, it doesn’t translate to ticket sales. This appears to have become increasingly true in the post-pandemic times.

While Bollywood sales are declining, Karan finds a lot of potential in Telugu cinema. According to him, it is the most ‘lucrative’ regional film industry in India. The trend commenced with Baahubali and has not come to an end ever since.