Karan Johar slams ‘herd mentality’ as he talks about Pushpa, Chhaava, Stree 2 success; addresses spy universe craze and asks, “How will I stand out if I copy?” - EXCLUSIVE

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Karan Johar is known for his candour, and in a recent conversation with Bollywood Hungama, the filmmaker once again shared some hard-hitting insights - this time on the current state of storytelling in the Hindi film industry. From genre fatigue to the obsession with cinematic universes, Johar didn’t hold back in expressing his views on why originality should be celebrated, not sidelined. “I think it's everybody grappling to do what others are doing. I think herd mentality. So, we see Pushpa running and catering so strongly to the tier two and tier three audiences. Suddenly there'll be 20 others wanting to do the same. You see Chhaava working, and everybody will want to make historical dramas! After Stree, everybody wants to make horror comedies. Those worked because they were individually strong, and there was no other option in that genre. And it was a unique thought that made those films work. We all have individual thoughts that are unique to ourselves,” Karan told Bollywo...
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The best films of 2024 … you may not have seen

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From a Hitchcockian thriller to a shocking documentary, Guardian writers pick their lesser-known movies of the year

I can’t really blame anyone for not seeing Drugstore June in theaters, considering that scattered, super-limited run lasted just a few weeks. (I caught it in a near-empty cinema, on a weekday-afternoon whim, the day after belatedly seeing the trailer online.) But now that it’s streaming on Hulu in the US, you can check out one of the least-discussed but funniest mainstream comedies in ages. Built around the standup persona of comedian Esther Povitsky, Drugstore June is very much a throwback to a time when any emerging comic figure might be awarded their own thinly conceived vehicle. It wasn’t a great trend – Drugstore June’s director, Nicholaus Goossen, made Grandma’s Boy, to cite one example among many – yet here, revived absent big-studio attention (or maybe just with extra love for the game), it produces an idiosyncratic townie detective comedy, with sheltered, self-centered, snacks-obsessed June (Povitsky) trying to figure out who trashed the pharmacy where she (barely) works. Unlike its many Sandler-crew predecessors, Drugstore June has a genuine sense of place, a playful sense of generational self-satire, and an original persona at its center. It’s all the more miraculous at a time when studios big and small don’t care much for making comedies. Jesse Hassenger

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