Dear Karan Johar, not everyone is comfortable discussing their sex lives
Talking about sex is not everyone's cup of coffee. They grin and bear with it only because of who Karan Johar is.
In episode after episode of the otherwise-enjoyable Koffee With Karan, we can feel the host's ineluctable desire to enter his celebrity guests' bedrooms for a peep into their sexual activities. Which is not such a bad thing if you are interviewing Paris Hilton, Rakhi Sawant or Mika Singh.
But it can get a bit iffy when the guests are two normal healthy young conservative heterosexual actors not used to kissing and telling, and maybe not even used to kissing in public.
The up and coming (giggle giggle) Ayushmann Khurrana and Vicky Kaushal (billed in order of seniority) were Karan Johar's guests this week. While Kaushal made it clear he wasn't comfortable answering 'those' kinds of questions by not even admitting to dating a particular girl (whom we know he's dating), Ayushmann decided to take the innuendo route.
He spoke about how during his courtship days in Chandigarh he sneaked into his wife's (then girlfriend) house when her father was away.
"Were you in the bedroom with her?" leered our host. Here is where Khurrana Saab got uncomfortable.
Last week, when the affable Diljit Dosanjh showed up with Badshah on the show, Dosanjh was asked if he had ever "made out" in the fields in a car.
"Yeh bada khatarnaak sawaal hai," Diljit replied smartly. The truth is, Diljit didn't even know what KJo meant. All he knew was that the question was sexual in tone. He later asked his friends and understood how sexual.
No wonder a friend of Diljit's said to me, "I think Karan Saab got the wrong person on the show with Badshah. I think he was looking for Mika. He would have happily answered all the questions where he made out and in what positions."
The truth is, Indian men, even the ones who are high-profile, do not discuss their own sex lives in public. When the ultra-conservative Kapil Sharma had come on Koffee With Karan, the host tried to grill him about his girlfriend, sex, etc. Kapil very firmly dodged the questions with a smile.
Later Kapil told me, "Karan Saab ke andar ek sharaarati bachha baitha hai jo iss show pe lapak ke baahar aa jata hai. He doesn't mean any harm."
No, he doesn't. But talking sex is not everyone's cup of coffee. They grin and bear with the intrusive questions only because of who he is.
In a way that's a misuse of one's power, though not in any deliberately damaging way.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)
