Days after saying that she was ‘deeply hurt’ by filmmaker Karan Johar, veteran actor spoke glowingly about his father, the late producer Yash Johar, and addressed the issues that she has with Karan. She said that she had a longstanding working relationship with his father, which she felt wasn’t honoured once he took over the family’s Dharma Productions business. She also spoke about refusing to do the film Kal Ho Naa Ho, because she was being asked to play the mother-in-law of Jaya Bachchan’s character months after working with her in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham as women of the same age.
In an interview with Bollywood Bubble, she made unprompted comments about Karan having ‘changed’ over the years. “Back in the day, Karan Johar… I don’t know what he’s like nowadays, loyalties shift very fast. He doesn’t have any role for me in his films these days, even though they wouldn’t make a film without me at one point. His father, Yash Johar, was one of my favourite producers. What a man, what a gem of a person! He’d call me up and say, ‘Dekhiye Farida, hero ka role toh baad mein likha jaata hai, aapka role pehle likha jaata hai (We write your character even before we’ve decided where to go with the protagonist)’.”
Also read – Farida Jalal reveals she was ‘deeply hurt’ by Yash Chopra’s actions, says Karan Johar knows he’s ‘wronged’ her in the past: ‘It’s a deep wound’
She continued, “I first met Karan on the sets of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, because he was Aditya Chopra’s right hand man on that film. We became very close. He would tell me that he’s going to make a film, and Kajol, Shah Rukh and I were all with him. He came to tell me the story of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai… It is still his best film, and I’m not just saying this because I was in it.It was a very sensitive film. He would write each and every word, every scene himself. I cried when he narrated the film to me.”
But things soured between them not too long afterwards. She said in an interview with India Today that Karan didn’t cast her in any Dharma project after 2012’s Student of the Year. She said that he made sure to call her up himself because he knew that he’d ‘wronged’ her in the past. But they didn’t work together even after Student of the Year. She had a similar experience with Aditya Chopra, and said that she wouldn’t think twice before accepting a role if Yash Chopra asked, but even though she did him a favour by appearing in DDLJ, Aditya Chopra didn’t cast her in future YRF films.
In the Bollywood Bubble interview, Farida Jalal said that she was approached for a role in Nikkhil Advani’s Kal Ho Naa Ho, for the role that eventually went to Sushma Seth. But when they hired Jaya Bachchan to play a role in the film, it was mutually agreed that it didn’t make sense for her to be a part of the project any longer, because she wouldn’t be believable as her contemporary’s mother-in-law. “I rejected that film, it’s true, and I don’t regret it,” she said. She added that both she and makers took this decision mutually.
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via The Novum Times
The Novum Times 