Karan Johar may well be on his way to creating a record of sorts – introducing the maximum number of newcomers in the industry in a single year. He gave Bollywood a talented young director in Karan Malhotra when Agneepath released last month. Again, with his new release this week, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, Karan has introduced Shakun Batra as writer and director. The film is also hair stylist Ayesha Devitre’s maiden attempt at writing. Karan Johar’s own directorial venture, Student Of The Year, which will release later this year, will feature three new actors in the lead roles, viz. Siddharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan and Aaliya Bhatt. Six talents in one year – that’s pretty good!
Not Just Directors!
Besides the three lead players in his Student Of The Year, viz. Siddharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan and Aaliya Bhatt, there’s another new face Karan Johar is introducing in the film. And he is Boman Irani’s son. While Varun and Aaliya have a filmi lineage, just like Kayo Irani, Siddharth does not hail from a film family. Many in the industry assume that Siddharth Malhotra is in some way related to ace dress designer Manish Malhotra and director Punit Malhotra or director Karan Malhotra, but there’s no truth in that. Karan Johar revealed a funny incident that took place recently. “Somehow, everyone presumes, all my newcomers are from film families,” remarked Karan, continuing, “Bobby Deol happened to be travelling on the same flight as Siddharth Malhotra. When the two struck a conversation, Bobby asked Siddharth, ‘And you are the son of….?’ expecting the new hero to fill in the blank with a film personality’s name. But Siddharth replied, ‘No, I am not from a film family!’”