Showtime: The Industry Is Nervous About Being Exposed

Karan Johar’s Showtime, now streaming on Disney+Hotstar, exposes the underbelly of Bollywood. Amidst all the glitz and glamour, Showtime takes on the insider-outsider debate, producer-actor manipulations, box office numbers, scandals, and all things Bollywood.

Welcome to the most glamorous hell on earth.

‘Nepotism ke mukhaute ke picche akhir har outsider insider banna chahta hai,’ smirks a producer in Showtime. The dialogues are penned by Jehan Handa and Karan Shrikant Sharma.

The show features Emraan Hashmi like never before. His character is modeled on Karan Johar. Showtime brings to the viewers an ensemble cast, with legendary actor Naseeruddin Shah (modeled on Yash Johar), Rajeev Khandelwal (modeled on Rajesh Khanna), Mouni Roy, Mahima Makwana, Shriya Saran, and many other talented actors.

Far more entertaining than Karan Johar’s Showtime, an insider’s look-see at the dark side of Filmistan (a.k.a Bollywood) is the two-minute promotional video Karan has put out where he plays, what else, Karan Johar; rather, the public perception of ‘Karan Johar’ as a spoilt, rich, tantrum-throwing tycoon.

I must say Karan Johar as Karan Johar in the promotional video for Showtime is more entertaining than anyone in the show itself. Apparently, he shot the whole video in just twenty minutes, improvising insanely in the process.

At one point in the video, a meek junior assistant tries to butt in, “Can I?”

Karan snaps back at the petrified junior, “You can. But you may not.”

Karan got that from his English teacher in school.

Actor-filmmaker Vijay Mourya plays a nervous writer-director trying to pitch an idea for a series to Karan. Karan, playing the dismissive diva (a distant cousin to Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada), is in no mood to greenlight anything.

Until Mourya comes up with a concept/idea of a serial on a spoilt bratty movie mogul who has given nepotism a bad name. Playing the blissed-out daft dream merchant, Karan doesn’t realize that Mourya is selling Karan his own story. He happily greenlights the idea.

It is a delightfully self-deprecatory little skit, and a sturdy precursor to the actual series, which begins streaming from March 8.

Showtime on Disney+Hotstar stars Emraan Hashmi, Mahima Makwana, Mouni Roy, Rajeev Khandelwal, Shriya Saran, Vishal Vashishtha, Vijay Raaz, and (above all) Naseeruddin Shah. The series has borrowed extensively from real people in the Hindi film industry.

Karan Johar has already started receiving multiple calls and messages from his anxious friends asking, “Am I in it?”

Karan isn’t telling, of course. But many actors and filmmakers will identify themselves in Showtime, and there will be hell to pay. Ouch.

So has Karan cannibalized his friends and incidents from his real life?

“Keep guessing,” Johar teases, cocky as ever, having given Naseeruddin Shah, who plays in Showtime, a character based on a known showbiz figure, a run for his money in the promotional video for Showtime.