Karan Johar is letting the cats out of the bags in his biography. Since he’s Karan Johar, he knows exactly what to put in there that will get us all tingly and talk about it. After explaining about his fallout with Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan, he decided to talk about his fallout with Kareena Kapoor. His fallout with Kareena was legendary at the time that it happened. Not because it happened, but because Kareena had made it her duty to publicly fight with a lot of people back then.

Then, she met Shahid Kapoor and mellowed down a bit. Karan talks about what happened between Kareena and it was something that was already known before so no surprises there. But, actually Kareena had the heart to reach out to Karan when his father fell sick. Kajol didn’t even stop her husband from trying to sue Aditya Chopra right after his father died.

Karan Johar on his fallout with Kareena Kapoor

Karan on his first problem in Bollywood

My first problem was with Kareena. She asked for too much money and we had some kind of a fallout at that time. Mujhse Dosti Karoge! had just released, directed by Kunal Kohli. She said, ‘Aditya Chopra’s assistant Kunal Kohli has made this flop, so Karan Johar’s assistant, Nikhil Advani is not to be trusted either’. The weekend of Mujhse Dosti Karoge’s release, I offered her Kal Ho Naa Ho, and she asked for the same money that Shah Rukh Khan was getting. I said, ‘Sorry’. I was very hurt. I told my father, ‘Leave that negotiation room’ and I called her. She didn’t take my call, and I said, ‘We’re not taking her.’ And we signed Preity Zinta instead. Kareena and I didn’t speak to each other for almost a year. For a year, we looked through each other at parties. It was very idiotic. She was a kid; she’s a decade younger than me.

Karan on how they patched up

We were releasing Kal Ho Naa Ho in November. We had shot the film in June, July, August and in September I had to shoot the songs, make the promos and so on. So I had to head back, while my father continued the treatment in New York. That was the time Kareena Kapoor called me. It was August. We had not spoken for nine months. She called and said, ‘I heard about Yash uncle.’ She got really emotional on the phone, and she said, ‘I love you and I am so sorry I haven’t been in touch. Don’t worry.