Karan Johar reveals Emraan Hashmi’s character in Showtime is a version of him but admits it’s a bit ‘exaggerated’

Karan Johar doesn’t mince his words when he decides to get candid about certain topics. The filmmaker in a recent chat opened up about the Disney+ Hotstar show, Showtime. Starring Emraan Hashmi as Raghu Khanna – a top producer in Bollywood, the series sheds light on how his character resorts to corruption and malpractices to get films in Bollywood. During the chat, KJo revealed a lot of the series is an exaggeration, but there is also some truth to it.

Karan Johar on Emraan Hashmi’s character in Showtime

During a recent chat with Sucharita Tyagi, Karan Johar got candid about why he backed Showtime – a show that highlights Bollywood in a negative light. He said, “We all take ourselves too seriously. We should stop. You’ve got to have a sense of humour. If you’re talking about the industry, you’ve got to have a little fun with things as well.”

Talking about Emraan’s character being a version of himself, Karan said, “I think Emraan Hashmi is playing some version of me only. I really think that. When they came to me, they were all nervous, like working around that and asking ‘Are you okay?’ I said I was absolutely okay. I’m actually okay that you’re taking potshots at me in a certain way. Let us only do it, why should someone else do it?”

He continued, “We really wanted to have fun with it without being outwardly offensive, but also talking about what happens in the underbelly of our industry. A lot of it is exaggeration, cinematic license is taken. But a lot of it is true as well.”

About Showtime

4 episodes of Showtime premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on March 8, 2024. Emraan Hashmi as Raghu Khanna, Naseeruddin Shah as Viktor Khanna, Mahima Makwana as Mahika Nandy, Mouni Roy as Yasmine Ali and Rajeev Khandelwal as Armaan Singh. It also stars Shriya Saran, Vishal Vashishtha, Vijay Raaz and others.

On Friday, June 21, the streaming service took to social media and announced that the final 3 episodes of the show will premiere on July 12. According to a press release, the upcoming episodes will give a sneak peek into the “vulnerabilities of Raghu Khanna, his attempt at mending broken relationships and reclaiming what’s his”.

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