Karan Johar celebrated Friendship Day by sharing a deeply personal note on social media, opening up about the friendships that transformed his life and helped him navigate childhood loneliness, self-doubt, and some of his most challenging experiences. Through a series of heartfelt Instagram posts, the filmmaker reflected on growing up as an only child, struggling to fit in, and eventually finding friends who have remained by his side for decades.
Recalling his childhood, Karan shared how he often watched children playing cricket from the window of his building while feeling left out. Describing himself as a "PLUS size 7 year old," he humorously admitted that he was more interested in seeing hopscotch become a national sport than joining the boys outside. “I used to look outside of my building window as a PLUS size 7 year old," he wrote, adding that he felt incapable of either “making a run or making a run for it."
Behind the humour, however, was a sense of loneliness. Karan revealed that he often wondered, “Why don’t I have any friends?” As an only child, he said his world revolved around his bedroom and his insecurities, joking that he had been gifted “the greatest gift of all time… self pity.”
His outlook changed when Farzana Muncherjee entered his life. Describing her as a lively and outgoing Parsee girl, Karan credited her with encouraging him to step out of his comfort zone. “She swooped me out of my slumber and made me realise I was a hyper melodramatic drama queen and all I needed was to get out of my bedroom and create a new space for myself,” he wrote. Calling her his first true friend, he added, “47 years later Farzana is a huge part of my heart even today.”
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The filmmaker also looked back on another defining friendship that began in school after he was accidentally shifted to a different section in the sixth standard. Surrounded by unfamiliar classmates, Karan admitted he felt isolated once again. “I knew no one! I was alone again,” he wrote, joking that his “self pity pro max was back.”
According to Karan, his principal asked the class if anyone would volunteer to become his friend, but the room initially fell silent. “She asked again???” he recalled, before adding dramatically, “Dig a hole Karan and jump into it.” Moments later, Apoorva Mehta raised his hand. Karan humorously described the moment as happening under “Mani Ratnam-esque backlight.” Apoorva agreed to be his friend with one condition: “Bring veg snacks from tomorrow.” That light-hearted beginning eventually grew into a lifelong friendship, with Apoorva later becoming the CEO of Dharma Productions and one of Karan’s closest collaborators.
Reflecting on those early years, Karan said those friendships helped him overcome his insecurities about his weight, effeminacy and acne. “Post that he made me make many friends and I realised I needed to get over my own complexes,” he wrote, adding, “I needed to get over my own complexes and embrace myself and people will then embrace me. I guess it was as simple as that.”
The filmmaker also shared a more recent emotional chapter, revealing that his mother, Hiroo Johar, had spent 15 days in the ICU. He reassured fans that she is now back home and recovering well. “Recently I was in an ICU for 15 days with my mom. She’s back home and doing well now,” he wrote. The difficult experience, he said, reminded him that genuine friendships are life's greatest asset. “No matter what your wealth may be, the only investment that will always reap rich dividends is friendship,” he added, thanking his friends for standing beside him during his “turbulent days and nights.”
Concluding his Friendship Day message, Karan described his friends as his chosen family. “My friends today are my family. I am blessed with the best friends anyone can ask for,” he wrote. He also playfully revisited the iconic line from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, saying, “Pyaar dosti hai is all very well… But I hate to shatter that bubble and say pyaar se kahi zyada dosti hai,” underscoring his belief that friendship has been the strongest and most enduring relationship in his life.
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