Karan Johar and Kartik Aaryan bury the hatchet at 14th Indian Film Festival of Melbourne?

The 14th edition of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) kicked off today, 11 August. The event promises a rich dose of cinematic extravaganza, interesting sessions and fruitful discussions. The festival’s inauguration address saw leading Bollywood celebrities mark their presence. However, what caught audiences’ attention was the meeting between filmmaker Karan Johar and Kartik Aaryan. The duo reportedly had a bitter fallout over Aaryan being suddenly dropped from Johar’s production Dostana 2 in 2021. The pictures were shared on Instagram by the festival’s official Instagram page. The duo looked dashing in black suits. Take a look:

Karan Johar-Kartik Aaryan’s rumoured feud Kartik Aaryan was roped in to play the lead role for _Dostana 2_ alongside Janhvi Kapoor and Lakshya Lalwani. In 2021, Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions announced that it had taken a decision to recast the project. “Due to professional circumstances, on which we have decided to maintain a dignified silence, we will be recasting Dostana 2, directed by Collin D’Cunha. Please wait for the official announcement soon,” the statement read.

There were a number of rumours around Kartik Aaryan’s sudden exit from Dostana 2.  In an interview with Aap Ki Adalat, the Satyaprem Ki Katha star had broken his silence on the matter. “When there’s an altercation between two people, the younger one should never speak about it.” On the reasons for him leaving the film, he added, “I have never left a film because of money. I am very greedy but in terms of script and not money.”

The 32-year-old actor had cleared the air surrounding his and Karan Johar’s spat. He said that the two were on good terms with the filmmaker congratulating him on Shehzada’s release.Star-studded press conference The IFFM curtain-raiser saw a packed room at the Immigration Museum with Rani Mukerji, Karan Johar and Kartik Aaryan in attendance. The festival also honoured Karan Johar for 25 years as a filmmaker. The opportunity gave people a chance to ask and answer questions with celebrities. In addition, the star-studded affair also saw renowned names like Rani Mukerji, Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Onir, Vijay Varma, Mrunal Thakur, Anjali Menon, movie critic Taran Adarsh among others. Earlier, Aaryan, who was in Melbourne for the screening of his recent film Satyaprem Ki Katha at IFFM, received a warm gesture from one of his fans. This was when she proposed to him in public. “I might never get a chance to ask you this question again, but would you marry me?” asked the fan. Kartik Aaryan shared snippets of the heartwarming moment on his Instagram account:

As per their Instagram bio, IFFM is Australia’s biggest annual celebration of Indian films. The festival, which started today, will end on 20 August.