Karan Johar unfollows Bollywood celebrities, calls it 'digital detox'

Filmmaker Karan Johar sparked widespread speculation on social media on Thursday after fans noticed that he had unfollowed several Bollywood celebrities and close industry associates on Instagram.

Personal fallout or digital detox?

This action by Karan Johar quickly became a talking point online, especially after users observed that superstars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Malhotra, Malaika Arora, Ananya Panday and designer Manish Malhotra were no longer on his following list.

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Adding more to the surprise, Karan had also unfollowed actor Kartik Aaryan, who is all set to headline his upcoming production, “Naagzilla”. Instagram users noted that despite having more than 17 million followers, Karan was following only 78 accounts on the platform.

As speculation intensified, the filmmaker addressed the matter through his Instagram Stories later in the night, clarifying that the decision was part of his personal “digital detox” and not linked to any fallout with celebrities.

Karan wrote, “It’s a DIGITAL DETOX!!!! Am unfollowing everyone to reduce my time and energy spent on the gram!!! This can’t be national news for god’s sake… please clickbait something else! This is irrelevant!”

Priyanka Chopra is still on his following list

Interestingly, netizens pointed out that Karan is currently not following any Bollywood actor on Instagram. However, a few notable names still remain on his following list, including Dharma Productions CEO Apoorva Mehta, business associate Adar Poonawalla and actor Priyanka Chopra.

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Karan Johar has maintained a strong presence on social media for a long time and is known for frequently sharing updates from both his personal and professional life. His Instagram stories often feature candid moments with industry friends, fashion highlights, travel updates and glimpses of his children, Yash and Roohi.

Johar opens up about how harsh trolls affect him

At the same time, the filmmaker has also faced criticism and trolling online over the years. According to a report by The Indian Express, during an earlier interaction with Barkha Dutt on “We The Women Asia”, Karan opened up about one of the most painful comments he had encountered on social media.

“When they said that, ‘Do you realise that you deprived your children of a mother?’, and that broke my heart. That made me feel like, for the first time, I questioned my decision of being a single parent,” he had said.

Reflecting further on the impact of the comment, Karan added, “But that comment made me question or second-guess my decision for a beat, and after I read that comment, I had a moment where I broke down sitting in my room and I just cried.”