7 revelations from Karan Johar’s autobiography that deserve your time and attention

On losing virginity by paying for s*x

"I lost my virginity at 26. Yes, it is true. Why would I say this on record if it were not? It’s not something I am proud of. It was in New York. Up till that point, I was sexually completely inexperienced." Also, that experience, which took place in New York, was a paid one, as revealed by him.

Ignorance about sex during school days

"I was sexually completely inexperienced. Even when I was a kid, I was very backward in this department. I still remember the first time someone told me about bl*w j*bs. There was a kid in class who told me, ‘You know what a bl*w j*b is?’ I said, ‘No, what is it? I’ve heard about it though.’ He said, ‘You take off all your clothes and put your fan on high speed, and that’s a bl*w j*b.’ I said, ‘I can do that. What is the big deal in that?’ And at 12, I remember, I removed my clothes and put my fan on full speed. Later, I told him about it and he said, ‘You did it!’ I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, I did it three times.’ He said, ‘You had three bl*w j*bs yesterday!’ I said, ‘Yeah, I had three bl*w j*bs."

Awkwardness about sex

"While growing up, I was combating a hundred issues in my head. The thought of sex made me awkward; it almost rattled me. I thought, am I asexual? Why am I not feeling this? Why am I not doing anything? There was a lot of turbulence in my head. For me to address it, talk about it, discuss it, was a big no-no."

On his link-up with Shah Rukh Khan

"I’ve always handled the rumours that came my way. There has been so much conjecture about my sexuality. For heaven’s sake, for years there were rumours about Shah Rukh and me. And I was traumatized by it. I was on a show on a Hindi channel, and I was asked about Shah Rukh. ‘Yeh anokha rishta hai aap ka,’ the interviewer said. He worded it in such a way that I got really angry. I said, ‘If I asked you if you are sleeping with your brother, how will you feel?’ So he said, ‘What do you mean? How can you ask me this question?’ I said, ‘How could you ask me this question?’ For me, no matter what ups and downs Shah Rukh and I have been through, he is a father figure, an older brother to me. For me to look at him in that way or be subjected to those rumours was just ridiculous. But it didn’t bother him. He said, ‘People talk nonsense, and if a man does not have an extramarital affair, he is supposed to be gay."

How the judgments affect him

"I get scared of being spotted with any single man now because I think they are going to think that I am sleeping with him. I mean, firstly I have never ever talked about my orientation or sexuality because whether I am heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, asexual, it is my concern. I refuse to talk about it. I have not been brought up to talk about my sex life. I know I am the butt of many jokes, pun intended. I know how my sexuality is discussed. I have become like the poster boy of homosexuality in this country."

On being trolled mercilessly

"I have no problem with people saying what they want about me. Twitter has the most abuse. I wake up to at least 200 hate posts saying, ‘Get out, you’re polluting our nation, you’re dirtying society’ or ‘Shove [IPC Section] 377 up your arse.’ I get this on a daily basis and I’ve learnt to laugh it off. One man came up to me once very cockily at Heathrow airport and said, ‘Is it true that you are a homo?’ He was with his wife and child, and he asked me this. I looked at him and said, ‘Why, are you interested?’ And he said, ‘Hey , what what what!’ And I said, ‘Don’t what what me.’ And I walked out…"

His much-discussed sexuality

"Everybody knows what my sexual orientation is. I don’t need to scream it out. And if I need to spell it out, I won’t only because I live in a country where I could possibly be jailed for saying this. Which is why I Karan Johar will not say the three words that possibly everybody knows about me in any case. I’ve given hints. I’ve stood on a platform like AIB Roast, and I had half of the people supporting me and the other half dissing me for doing this. But at the end of the day , I did what I did, and I did it with my mother in the front row, and screw you if you have a problem with that."