Happy Birthday Karan Johar: 20 Unknown Facts About The Handsome And Talent Filmmaker

A lot of untold mysteries has surrounded the glamorous and handsome film director Karan Johar. Here are the top 20 mind-blowing facts about him, which we think will surely help you to understand him in depth.

1. Born on 25th May 1972, Karan Johar was first named as Rahul Kumar Johar. But later his name was changed to Karan after his mom had a dream about the same. His full name stands as Karan Dharma Kama Johar.

2. He started his career as an actor in the entertainment industry. He played the role of Shrikant in the 1989 serial Indradhanush which was aired on Doordarshan.

3. He entered the film industry as an Assistant Director in Aditya Chopra's landmark film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ).

4. Karan also played a minor role in the same film. Since Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, he had many cameo appearances in the movies like Om Shanti Om, Luck by Chance and Fashion until he made his official debut as an antagonist in Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet. He played the role of Kaizad Khambatta in the movie opposite Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma. The film was a moderate success in the box office with all the critics praising Karan's performance, which was way out of his comfort zone.

5. For the role in Bombay Velvet, he charged on Rs. 11. Karan's dad always wanted to see him as a mainstream actor and was even ready to launch him under the Dharma banner.

6. An interesting fact which might surprise is you that KJo had not only been an actor, producer, or a director. He had also worked as a costume designer for SRK on many films like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Dil To Pagal Hai, Duplicate, Mohabbatein, Veer Zara, Main Hoon Na, and Om Shanti Om.

7. KJo's directorial debut Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was a critically acclaimed as well as a commercial success breaking into India's top and elite director's list. His movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham was one of the first movies of which a "making of" book was written. The book written by Niranjan Iyengar was published in 2001.

8. Karan was a firm believer of numerology as he strictly followed the myth of naming all of his movies starting with the word K. This, however, was reportedly stopped practicing after the release of Raju Hirani's famous film Lage Raho Munna Bhai.

9. Mr. Johar's film Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna' s script has been invited to be included in the Library of Motion Pictures Arts and Science.

10. In the year 2007, Karan was selected as one of the world's best "250 Global Young Leaders". The selection was made by Geneva-based "World Economic Forum".

11. Apparently, the 2009 movie Kurbaan was supposed to be directed by Karan starring his all-time favorite lineup of Shahrukh Khan, Sanjay Dutt, and Kajol. However, he had to drop the project since he was working on Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham which turned out to be a mass entertainer and all-time blockbuster.

12. Initially, for the film Student Of The Year, he was planning to launch, Sanjay Grover, veteran Bollywood actor Gulshan Grover's son. However, the offer was declined by Gulshan Grover himself. However, when enquired about the same to Sanjay Grover he replied, that many offers including a role in Hollywood film too had been rejected by his father. He also stated that his father would prefer him to be involved in the business side of the entertainment industry and not the acting part.

13. After working with Ranbir Kapoor in Bombay Velvet, KJo had revealed that his all-time favorite actor was Ranbir Kapoor because he is incomparably phenomenal. He also revealed that he was super excited to work with the actor in the upcoming film Bramhastra.

14. By getting invited to The London Olympic's opening ceremony, he became the only Indian to be invited after the then Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh.

15. Karan Johar had not been married till date. He is a single father to his surrogate twins Yash and Roohi. Yash was named water Karan's father while Roohi is rearranged name of Karan's mother, Hiroo. He became a father to the twins on February 7, 2017. As the twins were born premature, they had to be kept under intensive care for almost 50 days at the hospital for which Karan had to take long paternity leave.

16. Karan Johar and Kajol were the best-known celebrity friends and their friendship was the talk of the town too. But recently, their relationship had gone sour when Ajay Devgan accused KJo of paying Rs. 25 lakhs to controversial film critic Kamaal R Khan to bash Devgn's then-new release Shivaay. Devgn's Shivaay and Johar's Ae DilHai Mushkil were released together, pitching against each other by both the producers.

Kajol in response to Ajay Devgan's accusations had tweeted "Shocked". This had apparently marked the downfall of a decade old friendship between the two. Later, in a series of tweets Kamaal R Khan revealed that Karan Johar had never offered money for bashing Shivaay. Though with time, the relationship seemed like to get back to normalcy when Karan posted a picture of him, Shahrukh Khan and Kajol together from the sets of My Name is Khan on his Instagram handle with a note saying 'Lifetime Bonds!!!!'. There were also reports of Karan sending his babies pic to Kajol with a very detailed message on how he missed her.

17. He came with the idea of Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna by overhearing a couples conversation at a coffee shop in London. Apparently, the couple was parting their ways.

18. Salman Khan was once invited to be as a guest in his famous television chat show Koffee With Karan. But however, Salman Khan reportedly declined the offer fearing that Karan would dig deeper into his personal life and also ask questions surrounding his marriage, girlfriends.

19. Karan wrote the entire script of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in just 30 days. This was the first film where he tried to explore deeper into the concept of Love Quadrangle.

20. Reportedly, Karan Johar had mentioned that his life ambition is to win the Oscars and walk the red carpet of Academy Awards. He had also hinted that he had started rehearsing the speech where he would say "This is for you India".

These are some of the amazing unknown facts about the famous film director Karan Johar who is turning 47 this May. Tell us if you know something which we aren't aware of Karan in the comments section below.