In a heartfelt revelation, filmmaker Karan Johar opened up about his tumultuous teenage years navigating issues of masculinity. He candidly admitted to spending three years secretly training his voice and gait to fit societal expectations, all while shielding the truth from his understanding father, Yash Johar, whom he misled with tales of computer courses.
Filmmaker Karan Johar recently opened up about the emotional challenges he faced growing up as an effeminate child. The director revealed that bullying, insecurity, and societal pressure pushed him into three years of secret voice-coaching classes during his teenage years—something he never confessed to his father, the late producer Yash Johar.
Karan Johar says effeminacy made him a target of bullying
In a candid conversation on Sania Mirza’s YouTube podcast ‘Serving It Up with Sania’, Karan Johar shared that being labelled effeminate from a young age shaped much of his internal struggle. The filmmaker recalled that at 15, he enrolled in voice-coaching sessions to change how he sounded. Speaking about his early interests, Johar said, “I was a course junkie. I used to do courses all the time. I loved learning new things. Boys my age were playing sports in those days, and I was learning cooking and even fruit and flower arrangement. I even did an import-export class.”He added that public speaking had always fascinated him because he loved elocution and school drama.
Coach told him he ‘sounded like a girl’
The director recalled when his tutor first pointed out his voice. Johar shared the comment that stayed with him, “You are a very bright kid, but you sound like a girl. You have a very effeminate personality, and your voice is that of a girl. And the world is tough on men who speak like this. So can I help you make your voice get a baritone and sound more like a man?”
A non-inclusive era with no support system
Johar reflected on the late 1980s and the lack of emotional guidance. “This was 1989… There was no wokeness, there was no self-awareness or counselling… You were vulnerable, scared, and worried.” He admitted he hid his coaching from his father out of shame.Despite his father’s supportive nature, Johar said, “I wanted to do this because that coach told me.”
The computer class lie
Johar revealed how he pretended to attend computer classes to hide the coaching. “Three years I did voice and walking coaching because I used to walk and run like a girl,” he said.When a computer arrived at his father’s office, the truth nearly surfaced. “I have never looked at a computer in my life because I was not doing computer classes,” he recalled.Karan Johar reveals he hid three years of voice training after being bullied for effeminate voiceMeanwhile, on the work front, his last directorial film was ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’. Go to Source
