Karan Johar: There is no place for a lover in my life

Theres a scene in the 2001 French comedy Ameacutelie when the movies protagonist asks herself How many couples are having an orgasm right now The answer she arrives at seems to be 15 Looking out of a Mumbai apartment shuttered in by its grills with the rains beating down and competing in volume against the traffic if one asks oneself this question what answer will one getWith an estimated population of 225 million in Mumbai and using the generic adult percentage of India 55 and other surveys of have you ever orgasmed mdash various surveys through India say 70 per cent of women respondents had never orgasmed and in another report 55 per cent of male respondents admitted to faking an orgasm mdash the real statistic evades usBut theres at least one orgasm that we all know has been had And weve all witnessed it at various times as we logged on to Netflix and reached the climax well nearly scene of Karan Johars segment of Lust Stories the second edition of the anthology by the makers of Bombay Talkies which released last monthThe scene has Megha Kiara Advani a sexually dissatisfied young wife mdash if you cant even count to 11 does it count at all mdash using a stolen dildo and getting caught out in front of her husbands familySpeaking over the phone mdash we are told this is the only time he will be able to spare as he gets on with his days commute mdash Johar says I was in fact the last to shoot among the four of us I hadnt found an idea that excited me enough My segment of Bombay Talkies was a heavy topic I wanted to take a similar path but say it with humour Men his female friends when confiding in him have told him are clueless in bed much as Vicky Kaushals character in the film And pleasure is deeply entrenched in patriarchyI wanted to portray that pleasure is a twoway street and women have the right to it too I wanted to root this story in a traditional middleclass home he says The story he says was then drafted by Sumit Saxena who was coscreenplay writer on Pyaar Ka Punchnama The ideation on the anthology says Johar began over the portrayal of lust and love ending however at the former But lust itself is a tough topic to portray in Indian cinemaLust remains a negative emotion we are not allowed to feed it he says Love is still needed to legitimise carnal desires and that often messes up a sexual dynamic Of course when love and lust collide thats a bonafide relationship Sexual desire on Indian celluloid he agrees remains skewed towards the freakish He points to the lipbiting sequences of the 1980s and hipthrusts of the 90sIts not been portrayed as a normal phenomenon when you stare at a person in the office or someone you see at the coffee shop and look away the subtlety and nuance isnt there The closest that he has seen lust being portrayed as it should be has been in erotic films or in the 1990 Spanish film Tie Me Up Tie Me Down by Pedro Almodoacutevar The way the man looks at the woman in that film theres something very sexy about it Not too many can achieve that That movie is about a man who has been released from a mental asylum and then in a bid to make his fantasy come true kidnaps a porn star he is in love with and envisions as his wife and mother of his childrenFor those who see it its a been a long journey for Johar from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham to Ae Dil Hai Mushkil I was 24 when I made Kuch Kuch Hota Hai What did I know about love then says the now 46yearold parentoftwo In his later films he has moved from talking about parental love to onesided love to infidelity then unrequited love and then cynicism It seems to mirror his own journey and emotions Today there are no LailaMajnus There are practical questions I will ask to a lover Where do you live what do you do In young love people are ready to die for each other and fight society but I dont want to die for youBut his next film Dhadak a remake of Marathi blockbuster Sairat is just that we point out He laughs Well they are young If we meet the same couple 20 years later I am not sure if theyd be ready for the same I am 46 I am far too cynical far too practical We come back to lust When did that journey begin At the age of 12 he says We wonder if he was aware of himself that early or were we too late The processing of what that emotion was he says came later There was no emotional connect with that person there was only a carnal desire and I realised oh my god this is was lust is But lust is not taught to us we dont know how to feel it We can feel love the idea of getting married and having children But where is the reference point to lust Its part of something we needJohar became father to a pair of twins last year in March A single father to Yash and Roohi does he miss having a partner No Theres no place for anyone else His family unit where he raises his kids with his mother Hiroo Johar is quite tight and settled My third baby is my production house and I have a fourth one at home my mom who is over 75 I am quite satiated with life This works for meHappy to be a single parent he says his life has always been unconventional in either the personal or the professional I have never fallen for the trap of log kya kahenge whether it is when taking on the role of a talk show host wearing a flamboyant jacket or judging dance reality shows His choices Yes we come back to that The choice of filming the orgasm as his most iconic loving your parents song mdash the K3G soundtrack sung by Lata Mangeshkar mdash plays in the background was a master move It reeked of Johar laughing at himselfWe thought it was an intellectual juxtaposition of what was happening in one part of the house to the other part of the house Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham was the perfect family film And Advanis character was having an orgasm in front of the family When this idea came to use the song as a background I laughed out loud We knew it would create a storm in the coffee cup he says Nope even in idioms Johar would rather have coffeeThe whacky moment is said to have brought discomfort to the Mangeshkar family Lata Mangeshkar sang the iconic number but Johar says They have not said it directly to me Theres no byline to that article theres not a single confirmed quote on who from the Mangeshkar family is saying this I have a feeling I know who has written it Its obviously a creative mind But its only helped Netflix so greatCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates