Karan Johar has no dreams of working in Hollywood: ‘I don’t want to make films without the language that’s raised me’

Karan Johar has said that while he does wish to walk the Academy Awards red carpet, he would prefer it if it were for a Hindi production.

Filmmaker Karan Johar wants to walk the Oscars red carpet, but only if he gets to represent Hindi cinema at the prestigious awards. In a new interview with Variety, Karan spoke about how he doesn't dream of moving to Hollywood for work and that his heart is still and will always be in India.

‘My heart is in my country’

Karan said, “It took a couple of trips to Los Angeles to realise that it is all wonderful and you have a lot of meetings, but my heart is in my country and my cinema is in my heart. I don’t want to leave that. I don’t want to make films without the language that’s raised me.”

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He was honoured with the Variety Vanguard Award at the Red Sea Film Festival when he said, “I don’t need to make an English film to [win] it. It would be amazing to walk the Academy Awards red carpet, but I would like for it to be with a Hindi-language film.”

'Thank God for streaming'

Karan also said that the idea that Indian cinema is all about song and dance is a misconception that ‘has pushed us many years behind’. “Yes, we make song and dance movies and we are proud of them, but there are stories made in so many languages and from so many parts of India that are beautiful and should be viewed by audiences. Thank God streaming services are bringing it to the world. The world needs to wake up to Indian stories and storytelling,” he said.

Karan's last release was Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. It starred Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt in the lead with Dharmedra, Shabana Azmi and Jaya Bachchan in supporting cast. Karan is also busy these days with the eighth season of his hit talk show Koffee With Karan. So far, Deepika Padukone-Ranveer, Bobby and Sunny Deol, Varun Dhawan-Sidharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt-Kareena Kapoor, Kiara Advani-Vicky Kaushal and Janhvi Kapoor-Sara Ali Khan have appeared on the show.