I love Kareena to death: KJo

JLo is probably eating her heart out. ‘Coz the new toast of the debonair circuit has slightly different initials — KJo.

But envy won’t get her (or anyone else) anywhere, simply because Karan Johar has worked his butt off — planning, focusing and making his dad, Yash Johar’s banner, Dharma Productions, proud. Suddenly it’s an unstoppable juggernaut. Dostana, Wake Up Sid, now Kurbaan with My Name Is Khan and Stepmom to follow, even as his team of directors is plotting the next scripts.

“These young directors today, Tarun, Ayaan, Rensil, Siddharth and others directing for Dharma, they’re geniuses,” says the stylish producer. “They’re steps ahead of the way we thought earlier. They’ve taken cinema to another level. Look at the themes — comedy (Dostana), adolescence (Wake Up Sid), terror-sensitivity (Kurbaan), poignancy (MNIK) ... it’s incredible. I only wish dad was with us today. To see us take his legacy of honesty and credibility forward. Yes, hits help us financially, but we’re not greedy. We also want to give back quality cinema with conviction and good viewing. Otherwise, right now I have only Kurbaan on my mind. I’m very excited about it because it has been a subject close to my heart for a while now and I’d been tossing it around in my head. Then I asked Rensil (D’Silva) to write it and develop it for me. And I was so taken by his passion for the subject, that I asked him to direct it himself. And the result is crackling.”

Elaborating on the November 20th release, Karan says, “The story addresses the perpetually looming threat of terrorism, the film lends emotion into that graph. It has a point of view. That’s the path. Of presenting this threat in a logically, emotionally, sensitively cinematic manner. I’m quite delighted with the final product.” But there had been a thought in Karan’s mind, some time ago, to cast SRK in the lead role in this subject? “Maybe it was a thought a long time ago. Simply because SRK is emotionally a part of everything I do. Even before I wake up to box office figures, Shah Rukh calls asking, ‘How’re the collections dude? ... How’s it going?’ He’s part of Dharma. However, that said, after the way the film has shaped out, Saif and Kareena are ideal casting,” smiles KJo.

And how dissimilar is My Name Is Khan from this subject? Isn’t that Karan-directed venture also a ‘terrorism’ subject?

“Not at all. My Name Is Khan is totally different inasmuch it doesn’t deal with terrorism at all. That’s all media conjecture. Wait for that one as well.” What we couldn’t wait for was his response to Kareena’s recent joke that KJo was like a ‘witch’, that everything he said was almost prophetic. Karan couldn’t stop laughing: “We have this strange Karmic Connection and I feel the need to be as protective about her as ever. I love Kareena to death. We fight too. We didn’t speak for a year. I hurt her and she hurt me. But one only fights with those one loves. Now that we’re past the initial hurdles, we’re the best of friends. And you have to see her in the film to believe what she’s capable of. As for the ‘witch’ part, I wish I could prophesize the success of Kurbaan for starters ... that’s all I pray!”