Filmmaker Karan Johar penned an emotional tribute to his late father, filmmaker and producer Yash Johar, on his birth anniversary today, September 6. Remembering their close bond, Karan took a nostalgic trip down memory lane and shared several deeply personal anecdotes.
Recalling the release of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Karan revealed that he decided to celebrate by buying his first designer jacket. He proudly walked into a Burberry store and bought the only jacket that fit him during his “mega plus size days”. Convinced that he was looking “rather smashing”, Karan recalled his father looking at him, perplexed and asking, “Beta… yeh kya hai?”
When Karan told him that the jacket was from Burberry, Yash Johar replied, “Beta yeh Burberry nahi… bahut buri hai.” Karan wrote that he was initially shattered before bursting out laughing, adding, “That was my father – rooted, basic and very very funny.”
Karan also remembered how Yash Johar was his biggest fan. “Even when I looked like I had eaten an entire country and was trying for over an hour to zip myself into very stretched pants, he would say ‘puppy fat hai… chala jayega…’ Tu itna handsome hai – hero ban ja! Horse riding kyun nahi seekhta?!”
Karan then recalled how his mother would bring him back to reality after his father’s “hyper Raja beta delusions”, telling him, “Son you cannot be in front of the camera and certainly not on a horse.”
Calling Yash Johar his hero, Karan remembered his father’s values, kindness and “unmatched humility”, as well as his ability to be selfless to the point that it “almost seemed inhuman.” He went on to recall his father’s final days. After one of his chemotherapy sessions, Yash Johar told Karan that he did not want to leave him and his mother and asked his son to make him a promise. “Success means nothing if you are not kind. And take care of mom, like I have,” Karan recalled him saying.
Karan also described the heartbreaking moment when his father was on a ventilator and he knew there was “not a ray of hope”. Alongside the emotional note, Karan shared several throwback photographs from his childhood with his father.
Yash Johar, who founded Dharma Productions in 1976, was known for producing films including Dostana, Agneepath, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and Kal Ho Naa Ho. He passed away on June 26, 2004, at the age of 74.
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