Karan Johar expresses regret for IIFA nepotism joke, says 'Intention was not to hurt anyone'

After receiving  criticism from all sides for their "nepotism rocks" act, Varun Dhawan and Saif Ali Khan apologised for having taken the joke a bit too far . Joining them in their apologies is filmmaker Karan Johar, who has now taken the onus of the joke on himself, expressing deep regret about the direction the act went in. In an interview with NDTV, Johar has clarified that the remark was meant to be a joke, but was “misplaced, misunderstood and went wrong”. [caption id=“attachment_3829361” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Varun Dhawan, Karan Johar and Saif Ali Khan at IIFA 2017. Image from Twitter.[/caption] The nepotism debate between him and Kangana Ranaut began on his talk-show Koffee With Karan. Ranaut had called him “the flagbearer of nepotism” in Bollywood, referring to the filmmaker’s preference for star kids. Although the episode ended, Ranaut’s remark began a heated discussion on the issue. Quite a few celebrities joined the debate, releasing statements every now and then, expressing their opinions. Dhawan, Johar and Khan revisited the fiasco at the 2017 IIFA awards, where they said “nepotism rocks” in unison, taking distasteful jibes at each other, mentioning that they all are children of celebrities. Johar went a step further and mentioned Ranaut’s name during the act, which made it clear that the dig was being aimed at the actress. However, Johar has taken the high road and expressed regret for what transpired at the  award show.  Commenting on his momentary lapse of judgement, he said, “I think I was raised to be a dignified, a chivalrous, and a decent person. That’s the upbringing that I was given and I feel that I failed on those accounts. I felt that no matter what my thoughts or personal issues on this, I should not have repeatedly brought that up.” Johar also revealed that the idea of the joke came from him, and he takes full responsibility for it. Of course, the filmmaker still asserts that it is talent and hard-work that counts.