Last night’s episode of Koffee with Karan was the highlight of the season. Katrina and Anushka were unapologetically honest, upfront and didn’t hold themselves back as they spilled the beans on several Bollywood stars. Katrina, for one, didn’t shy from expressing her low opinion about the show. She talked everything about the show – from the ranking of Bollywood stars in rapid fire round to the dizzy black and white lines on the floor displease her.
When Koffee with Karan went on air in 2004, it was dubbed as a classy talk-show watched by the sophisticated (creme-de-la-creme) audience. However, 12 years after its run, the quality of the show has declined and how! The show is now becoming increasingly crude and crass and has lost the class and finesse it once had. Back in the first season of the show, the guests usually had a calm demeanor and maintained their poise as Mr Johar asked difficult questions. Now they can be seen jumping from the couch and doing dance steps in the Koffee Quiz.
One, however, cannot deny Karan Johar’s role in the quality decline. If you’ve been watching the show closely, you probably would have noticed how Karan Johar tries to create controversy by carefully sneaking in some trick questions that are bound to get controversial answers. For instance, last night when Katrina was in a chatty mood, Karan tried to take full advantage of the situation and tried to get as many stories out of her as possible.
Katrina (on Varun Dhawan): I don’t know if I should say it, it will get me in trouble
Anushka: Remember, he killed you (reference to Kill, Marry, Hook-up game where Varun chose to kill Kat)
Katrina: If you know the story, then cut me off.
Karan: No, but you have to say it on National television.
The last line speaks volumes of how hard KJo tries to get juicy gossip out of his guests and how it often comes off as desperation. Karan’s questions, however, follow a disturbing trend. He often asks Bollywood actresses some general knowledge questions in hope that they would get it wrong and create a buzzworthy moment that will have people talking for weeks.
Remember how he asked Alia, Who’s the President of India to which she answered Prithviraj Chauhan?. After the show aired, Alia faced the brunt of her fans/haters as they trolled her mercilessly for several months for being “dumb”. Why is it that KJo asks GK questions only to Bollywood actresses and not to actors?
As an avid watcher of the show and as someone who has watched every episode multiple times, not once in 12 years did I see Karan ask GK questions from the Bollywood actors — the likes of SRK, Aamir and Salman. Then why is it that only actresses (especially young ones like Alia, Anushka and Parineeti) are asked GK questions.
Last night’s episode had a similar moment when Karan Johar being the clever man that he is, sneaked in a mathematical question in the Koffee Quiz. While the two actresses were busy answering questions from pop culture and some Bollywood trivia, KJo acted smart and bombarded Anushka with a mathematical question: “What is 78 minus 59”. Anushka was caught off guard as she fumbled and answered the question wrongly. She answered “11” and KJo , Katrina and Arjun laughed at her expense.
The moment was reminiscent of Alia’s infamous Prithviraj Chauhan incident and made us wonder if KJo really tries hard to get his guests in trouble. The timing of the question was not correct, to say the least and it was framed to get Anushka in trouble.
Is that what Koffee with Karan has come down to? He asks trick questions which often catch the young actresses off guard and makes them give wrong answers to the questions they could have otherwise answered with ease. But the fact that KJo rarely tests the GK of Bollywood actors is proof of his internalized misogyny and how he believes that Bollywood actresses are bimbos who lack gray matter.
I mean, when was the last time he asked one of the Bollywood actors a GK question? When Twinkle Khanna appeared on the show, she grilled KJo for asking GK questions and asked him What does Chlorophyll do which left the man dumbfounded as he got the taste of his own medicine.
We hope KJo would stop looking down on Bollywood actresses or at least test the GK of the less than smart Bollywood actors who appear on his show.
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