Karan Johar gives a cryptic reply to trolls: Pick up the sword, I won’t be the one to die

Karan Johar shared a cryptic post on Instagram recently, in an apparent reply to the criticism he has been facing on social media. The filmmaker is being accused online of trying to sabotage the careers of Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Anushka Sharma.

Recently, in a podcast with Dax Shepard called Armchair Expert, Priyanka opened up about being “cornered” in the Hindi film industry. “I was being pushed into a corner in the industry (Bollywood). I had people not casting me, I had beef with people, and I am not good at playing that game so I kind of was tired of the politics and I said I needed a break. This music thing gave me an opportunity to go into another part of the world, not crave for the movies I didn’t want to get but I would require to schmooze certain clubs and cliques of people,” she said.

Adding to it, a video also resurfaced on social media which showed Karan speaking at the 18^th MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in 2016 and “joking” that he wanted to “murder Anushka Sharma’s career.” “I completely wanted to murder Anushka Sharma’s career because when Aditya Chopra showed me her picture, I was like ‘no no, no need to sign Anushka Sharma’. There was another lead actor whom I wanted Adi to sign.” Anushka was sitting next to him, laughing.

This led to a lot of backlashes online and people accused Karan of being hard on outsiders and promoting a clique culture in the industry. Now, in an apparent reply to the trolling, Karan shared a “poem” on his Instagram stories. “Laga lo ilzaam, hum jhukne waalon mein se nahi, jhoot ka ban jao ghulam, hum bolne waalon mein se nahi, jitna neecha dikhaoge, jitne aarop lagaoge, hum girne waalon mein se nahi, humara karam humari Vijay hai, aap utha lo talvaar, Hum marne waalon mein se nahi,” it read. The post roughly translates to, “Put blame on me, I won’t bow. Be a slave to lies but I won’t speak. The more you look down on me, the more you put blame on me, I won’t fall. My work is my victory, pick up the sword, I won’t be the one to die.”

On the work front, Karan is gearing up for the release of his next directorial, Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, which stars Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh.