What was long speculated in the gossip mills has finally come out in the open. Kajol is no longer friends with Karan Johar. Disclosing this fact is none other than Kajol’s husband Ajay Devgn.
“I am not friends with him (Karan). Even Kajol's equation is not as warm as it was. It is a personal issue... not due to any professional thing. It's a personal hurtful feeling. It has nothing to do with the clash," Ajay Devgn told Press Trust of India.
When asked to specify the reason, the actor refused to dilvulge that. Kajol and Johar have been childhood friends and have worked together in Johar's directorial ventures Kuch Kuch Hota Hain (1998), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001) and My Name Is Khan (2010).
On the other hand, her hubby and Johar have never been friends, and this cold war has been out in the open with the two powerhouses of Indian cinema set for a box office clash this Diwali. Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is set to lock horns with Devgn’s Shivaay.
The Devgn-Johar rivalry reached a boiling point, when a month ago, he had indirectly accused Johar of bribing controversial critic Kamaal Rashid Khan to sabotage his film Shivaay. In an audio sting operation, Devgn’s business associate Kumar Mangat got KRK to confess that he had allegedly received Rs25 lakhs from Johar for deriding the trailer of Shivaay. KRK later retracted his statement and said that Mangat had, in fact, offered him money to bash ADHM.
Devgn had expressed disappointment at the controversy and called for a investigation into the matter. Kajol, too, had expressed shock at this controversy.
Personal equation apart, Devgn surprised all by saying that banning Indian films just because they had Pakistani actors in it was unfair. Devgn was speaking in context of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s call to ban Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.
"Sometimes, it gets difficult to remove anybody from a film that has already been completed. I feel, when people have shot a film before an issue has happened, they should be allowed to release it," Devgn told PTI.
While the actor batted for Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’s release, he was pretty firm in backing the call to stop cultural exchanges with Pakistan till India Pakistan relations normalised.
"We admire their work and they admire us and our work. Right now, the situation is that our security forces are fighting and dying. So, we have a responsibility to keep their morale up. Otherwise, they will feel, we are dying here and these people are going on with their lives like nothing has happened, So, my stand is with the security forces and my request is, till the problem is solved, it should be that way,” added the Shivaay actor.
Both Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Shivaay are set to release on 28th October.