Karan Johar recently criticised Bollywood's apparent PR overdrive

As big a cheerleader as he is for Bollywood, filmmaker Karan Johar is also one of its loudest critics, never mincing words when calling out the hypocrisies and improprieties of industry professionals. Recently, Karan tore into Bollywood’s apparent PR overdrive. He noted that every compliment now comes with a price tag, which has blurred the line between genuine and manufactured praise.

During a recent interaction with The Week, Karan Johar was asked about the promotional strategies Bollywood has witnessed in recent times. Citing Janhvi Kapoor wearing shirt(s) with “Sundari” inscribed on them for Param Sundari (2025) and Shanaya Kapoor “doing crocodile gimmicks” for Tu Yaa Main (2026), an audience member asked Karan if Bollywood was following in the footsteps of Hollywood and if such publicity tactics would become more common going forward.

‘All PR is paid PR now’

In response, Karan opined that Hindi cinema should dial down its PR activities, as they have become too much. “I think Bollywood should stop doing PR. It will be much better. They should let their achievement speak for themselves because, unfortunately, all of the PR is now paid PR. If you want someone to say, ‘You are looking gorgeous,’ you just have to pay. If you want someone to say that you are the best actor on planet Earth, you have to pay,” he pointed out.

Delving further into the subject, the director-producer noted that this situation makes it difficult for people, including himself, to discern between genuine and paid compliments. “I think we are in an overdrive mode when it comes to PR. So whether they are doing method marketing or not is secondary. They should stop marketing themselves and let their work speak for itself.”

‘Deeply upsetting’

Mentioning that he was not referring to Janhvi Kapoor or Shanaya Kapoor specifically, Karan Johar added, “I mean everyone in general… I think PR has gone into overdrive mode. There’s a certain way of doing it. Publicity and marketing are very important work categories, and they should be treated accordingly.

Karan continued, “Now everything is available at a price, and that is something that could be deeply upsetting because then you really can’t gauge what’s connecting and what’s not. Now you look at everything and be like, ‘Are people really liking these things or are they paid to like it?’ I don’t know, I can’t tell half the time. It’s confusing me too because even I sometimes pay for it.”