Filmmaker and producer Karan Johar recently offered a candid and business-focused perspective on the workings of talent management agencies during a conversation with Sarthak Ahuja. Known for balancing creative and entrepreneurial roles, Johar gave rare insight into why he entered the talent management vertical and what, according to him, truly sustains the business.
“When I started the talent management vertical, it was because I felt talent management comes to me naturally. Firstly, you cannot get into talent management if you’re not a people’s person. Because talent management is 90% handling people, egos, insecurities, and it’s not easy. Let me tell you, if you look at talent management as a business opportunity, nothing’s going to happen”, he said.
Johar described the profession as demanding and often unrewarding as he went on to continue, “I love it. I don’t know why. Because it’s a thankless job. Sometimes, you’re spending hours on it and yet nobody’s really loyal here. Every two years, people are shifting from one agency to the other, because, as I said, they are so insecure and they feel we’re time bound. Oh it’s not happening here let me go there. Not happening there, let’s go to another place. Actors just keep hopping and skipping. So you put two years of life into talent and then they suddenly move to somebody else and then they don’t like it there, then they want to come back to you. This is a vicious circle.”
Beyond the emotional and managerial aspects, Johar emphasised the need for evolving the revenue model. “So, what you can do is within talent management you have to look for equity investments which is what many of the agencies are doing. They’re finding equity partnerships with their talent and they themselves are jumping on that. So, they’re saying ‘oh you take this much, we are taking this much, and we are part of this star-led, actor-led or celebrity-led equity partnership,” he shared.
He further elaborated on how agencies are diversifying, “A lot of them have started setting up films. For example, Collective has started a whole division that is setting up feature films – they are also leading with their partnership with Nikhil Kamat doing equity investments. So just commission on artists is going to give you nothing. Because artists are nobodies. They are absolutely nobodies. So, you have to kind of within that vertical build other equity-based partnerships, set up feature films, projects, all that can be monetized and are much more monetizable but just commission on actor or artist – no.”
With these remarks, Johar not only highlighted the volatility within talent representation but also underlined a broader shift in the entertainment ecosystem — one where equity, ownership and diversification are increasingly central to long-term sustainability.
Also Read: Karan Johar calls Shah Rukh Khan-KKR the “first genuine, amazing master partnership”
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