69th Filmfare Awards 2024 press conference: Karan Johar jokes that the award ceremony this year is Varun Dhawan’s favourite as it’s the 69th edition

By Fenil Seta -

January 15, 2024 - 7:45 PM IST

The press conference of the 69th Filmfare Awards 2024 was held in Mumbai on January 15 and it turned out to be an entertaining event. The event’s star guests were filmmaker Karan Johar and actors Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor. Karan raised laughs with his opening speech as he took a dig at Varun.

69th Filmfare Awards 2024 press conference: Karan Johar jokes that the award ceremony this year is Varun Dhawan’s favourite as it’s the 69th edition

Karan Johar began by joking, “This is the 69th Filmfare award. It’ll be Varun’s favourite as it’s the 69th edition (smiles)!” He continued, “Next year, it’ll be the 70th which will be my favourite as 7 is my lucky number. Hence, I am very thrilled that I’ll be hosting this absolutely spectacular moment in time, going to Gujarat and celebrating in the land of culture, tradition and now empowerment and economic growth. This makes it the best location because cinema is two things – displaying our culture on celluloid and huge economic growth at the cinema halls. And that is what Gujarat stands for. So, we could not be at a better location.”

Karan Johar then talked about his long association with Filmfare, “The reason I started hosting was because of Filmfare Awards. I was asked in the year 2001 to host and I did. It was my first time hosting any ceremony. That began my journey as a host. Hence, I have an emotional attachment to the Filmfare enterprise.”

He further stated, “Winning a Filmfare means going into the archives of Hindi cinema and Indian cinema. To have that moment in history is what most creative artists aspire for. That’s what makes Filmfare not just powerful but exceptionally emotional and special to all the nominees and winners. I have been in the industry for 25 years and I have only won 2 Filmfare awards. Yet, I applaud the geniuses who won several of them. No matter what the wins are, no matter what the glories are, it’s the participation and the sense of community that Filmfare stands for.”

Also present at the event were Rohit Gopakumar, Chief Executive Officer, Times Network, Hareet Shukla, IAS Secretary Tourism, Govt. of Gujarat and Jitesh Pillai, editor of Filmfare. At this press conference, it was announced that for the first time, the Filmfare Awards this year will be a two-day event.

The event on the first day, January 27, will be held at the Mahatma Mandir Convention and Exhibition Centre, Gandhinagar. It will comprise a curated fashion show by Shantanu and Nikhil, a live performance by Parthiv Gohil and the technical awards. The latter will be hosted by Aparshakti Khurana.

The main awards will be held on January 28 at GIFT City. It will be hosted by Karan Johar, Ayushmann Khurrana and Maniesh Paul. Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sara Ali Khan and Kartik Aaryan will perform on the second day.

Also Read: Tota Roy Chowdhury reveals Karan Johar to be one of the ‘kindest’ people he has every met; says, “There is a lot to learn from him as a human being”