Karan Johar reveals IS Johar was his uncle, describes him as “shockingly irreverent and ahead of his times”

By Subhash K. Jha -

March 11, 2024 - 12:45 PM IST

There have been years of speculation in the social media whether Karan Johar is related to IS Johar, whose death anniversary falls on 10 March. Now it can be told: yes, Indra Sen Johar was Karan Johar’s uncle.

Karan Johar reveals IS Johar was his uncle, describes him as “shockingly irreverent and ahead of his times”

The iconoclastic irreverent tongue-in-shriek rabble-rouser of the 1960s and 70s once said in an interview to Sunday magazine, “I was a suppressed sex patient myself all my life with symptoms of wet dreams, homosexuality, womanising, masturbation, impotence and even incest. The worst was my uncontrollable sexual daydreams, in which I infused life into the pictures and statues of beautiful gods and goddesses, by my bhakti, to screw them.”

When I narrate the above quote to Karan Johar he laughed and said, “Yes, that was IS Johar, shockingly irreverent and ahead of his times. He wasn’t afraid of speaking his mind. He did some really cool stuff in his time. And yes, we are related. He is my father’s second cousin. I never got to meet him in person. He passed away when I was just a child. But as I grew older, I heard stories about him. He was quite an enfant terrible.”

The most notorious story about IS Johar is the one about an income-tax raid at his home. IS Johar met the tax sleuths stark naked at his home. When they protested, he explained that he had an allergy problem with clothes. He insisted on following the raid team without a stitch of clothes as they walked through his home. Apparently, there were ladies in the team too. The raiders swiftly left Johar’s home.

I S Johar’s 1978 film Nasbandi was a scathing satire on the sterilization campaign during the Emergency. It starred duplicates of superstars like Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha and contained the satirical song ‘Kya mil gaya sarkar emergency laga ke’ by Mahendra Kapoor and Manna Dey. The song was a parody of Noor Jehan’s ‘Kya mil gaya bhagwan tumhe dil ko dukhake’.

Not surprisingly, Nasbandi was banned. It contained one of Indian cinema’s finest songs on the politics of religion: ‘Kis kaam ke math mandir masjid, kis kaam ke girje gurudware/kis kaam ke math mandir masjid/ kis kaam ke girje gurudware / bhagwan ke bete ghar ke bina/ jab firte hai mare mare/ dharmo ke pujari bhul gaye/ insan ko apne usulo me/ patthar ki murat phoolo me/ insan pade hai dhoolo me / pathar ki murat pahne hai poshake resham ke jode/ insan pade hai raaho me kapdo ki jagah kagaz odhe/ charcho me chadhti hai shame/ insaan ke ghar me andhiyare/ ae sabke khuda ye majhab kya/ jo karde juda insaano ko/ hum balak hai hum kya jaane/ tu gyan de in nadano ko/ sajdo me milega kya inko/ insan ko ye thukrate hai/ insan me hi rahman chhupa/ rahman ko ye thukrate hai/ kabhi pyar kiya na padosi ko
kabhi pyar kiya na padosi ko/ aur kashi kaba hai pyare’.

This one irreverent iconoclastic song proves there was much more IS Johar than the scandals that he seemed to enjoy.

Also Read: Karan Johar honoured with Icons of Excellence Award at the Forbes Leadership Awards 2024: “All the creative artists can do is constantly strive for excellence”