Looking back at it all, Johar recalled an incident from a paid preview the night before its release, when he quietly watched the film with an audience.
“I was sitting behind a very traditionally dressed middle aged couple (and for some reason they seemed angry and the anger was taken out on the poor popcorn they were chomping on!)” he wrote.
At one point, when Dev and Maya (Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukerji's characters) enter the elevator of a hotel and begin to make love (despite being married to other people), the woman reacted with shock.
“At that point Lady Saree looked at Sir Kurta in shock and dropped her popcorn. He turned back and said (in Gujarati) - "Dream sequence che!"”
When the man realised that it wasn't a dream sequence, Johar recalled that the man looked at his wife angrily and exited.
What happened outside the theatre, however, left him even more shaken. “I stepped out with mixed feelings, and a lady & her crying daughter came up to me (I honestly thought she was moved by the movie). She asked - “Are you Karan Johar!!??”.. I took my daughter to see a happy film with songs and dances and family values because it's YOUR film. The DAY she got her DIVORCE and this is what I saw!! Shame on you. I was worried she may hit me so I scurried away from her and encountered some more angry faces...” he recalled.
Johar said the film went on to receive “hugely polarising reviews and audience feedback... From being called brave, my best work to anti 'sanskaari' values and immense hate - I heard it all...”
Weeks later, another encounter offered him a very different perspective. He continued in the post, “I met a woman at an airport lounge a few weeks later (at this point I was ready to be assaulted at any given point of time), she said - "I loved your film...but I lied to my husband and told him I hated it."”
When he asked why, she replied, “If I told him I loved it he would have asked me what I liked about it...so it was safe to lie!”
Johar sportingly acknowledged the film's flaws. “I don't deny the flaws of the film... It was over bloated in scale and had opulent (and some unnecessary) songs to pander to my understanding of the mainstream... but I always felt it had its heart in the right place… The film did not endorse infidelity (that was never ever my intention) but it did show that stepping out of the boundary of marriage to seek love or desire can destroy your very foundation and family.”
Twenty years later, he believes the film continues to resonate differently with people, “20 years later, I meet many people who tell me they couldn't relate to it then but understand it better today... Perhaps life itself gives us answers we never ever wanted to question.”
Rishabh Suri writes for the daily Entertainment & Lifestyle supplement HT City. From Bollywood to Hollywood, from Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam films, to OTT and television- he covers it all.
