On Thursday, The New York Times took live a piece where they referred to Karan Johar as “the man who let India out of the closet.” The article, written by Aatish Taseer, talks about the filmmaker’s influence on homosexuality in India by “quietly pushing the edge of the envelope for years”. It acknowledges that there are activists who aren’t too fond of him, believing that he reduces gay characters to caricatures, but makes the point that he has to be careful about how he approaches the subject. It’s similar to what Karan says in his own book, An Unsuitable Boy – masking the topic of homosexuality with frivolity may be the only way to openly talk about it in India.
The piece ends up calling Karan “a man who has done more than anyone to make India safe for love” – a fairly strong statement, but one that’s not completely unfounded if you stop to think about it. Yes, Karan Johar won’t say he’s gay – but he doesn’t owe that to us, and it’s not hard to see why he’d choose not to.
Read the full piece on The New York Times here.