Karan Johar regrets chanting 'nepotism rocks' at IIFA 2017: I have been ungraceful to Kangana Ranaut

Karan Johar has come under a lot of fire in the last few days for his nepotism barbs at Kangana Ranaut at the recently held IIFA Awards in New York. Karan, along with Saif Ali Khan and Varun Dhawan, chanted "Nepotism rocks" on stage, a thinly-veiled dig at Kangana Ranaut and her comment on the filmmaker, calling him the "flagbearer of nepotism".

The act faced a lot of backlash from Twitteratti, who slammed the trio for "attacking" Kangana in her absence. After Varun Dhawan took to Twitter to apologise for the tasteless act, Karan Johar has apologised in an interview with NDTV.

"This is something that I need to say and to clarify. Of course, I do not believe that nepotism rocks. Of course, I believe that only talent and hard work rocks," he said. The Ae Dil Hai Mushkil director added, "What we said was meant to be a joke, and I think it was misplaced, misunderstood and I think it went wrong. I regret it. The idea of that joke was entirely mine, so I take total onus. I think we went a bit far with the Kangana mention."

Karan added that he had been "ungraceful" and failed the upbringing he was given. "No matter what I feel about what Kangana said on my talk show, I feel that I was raised to be a dignified, chivalrous and decent person. That's the upbringing that I was given, and I feel that I failed on those accounts. No matter what my thoughts or personal issues on this, I should not have repeatedly brought up this issue. So for that, I am deeply regretful," he said.

He said that it was "deeply disturbing" that they were being trolled, because their intention was "never to hurt anyone." KJo said that they wanted to poke fun at themselves, but the joke horribly backfired. However, he added that it is the last he would be talking on the subject of nepotism and Kangana because he did not want to be "disrespectful" to her.

The controversy began when Varun Dhawan came up on the IIFA 2017 stage to receive the Best Performance in a Comic Role award for Dishoom. Host of the evening, Saif Ali Khan, joked that the actor had made it big in the industry because of his father, director David Dhawan.

Varun replied, "And you're here because of your mummy (veteran actress Sharmila Tagore)."

Karan chimed in, "I am here because of my papa (late filmmaker Yash Johar)."

The trio then said in unison, "Nepotism rocks".

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