69th National Film Awards: Did Vivek Agnihotri Deliberately Crop Karan Johar Out From Group Photo With President?

By OB Bureau On Oct 18, 2023

New Delhi: Director Vivek Agnihotri has never hidden his disdain for Karan Johar and has even gone public about it. He ensured that he made his dislike for the ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ director clear even at the 69th National Film Award ceremony. Vivek Agnihotri was present at the ceremony to accept the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Film on National Integration for ‘The Kashmir Files’. Karan was also at the ceremony to accept the Special Jury Award for Shershaah, a film he had produced. While a video showed Vivek seemingly rolling his eyes when Karan accepted his award, the director has now shared a photo in which Karan seems to have been deliberately cropped out.

Taking to X (previously known as Twitter), Vivek shared a photo in which the winners of the 69th National Film Awards posed with President Droupadi Murmu and Anurag Thakur, the Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting. Vivek with his wife, actress Pallavi Joshi, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, R Madhavan, Waheeda Rahman, SS Rajamouli, Allu Arjun, Kriti Sanon and Shreya Ghoshal, among others can be seen in the frame. However, the photo has been cropped to remove Karan.

Here is the original:

Here is the cropped one:

Besides the cropped picture, Vivek also shared photos of Pallavi posing with Waheeda, Shreya, Alia and Kriti, and a selfie with Waheeda. Sharing the photo, Vivek wrote, “Such talent. Women power. #NationalAwards.”

Notably, in August this year, Vivek accused Karan and Shah Rukh Khan of ‘damaging India’s cultural fabric’. Speaking with DNA, the filmmaker said, “After the advent of Amitabh Bachchan as a superstar – not the one from Deewar but one from Shehanshah – the cinema after that never told real stories. Especially Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan’s cinema, that has actually damaged the cultural fabric of India in a very disastrous way. So, I felt it was important to tell real, honest stories.”

Karan and Shah Rukh have not reacted to his statements.