Mumbai: Filmmaker Karan Johar confirmed the ninth season of his signature talk show ‘Koffee With Karan’ and also announced plans of developing his 2006 film ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’ into a web series.
‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’ remains one of the most debated projects among KJo’s filmography.
Bold for its time, the film explored themes of infidelity within marriage with an unflinching lens.
Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukerji in lead roles, the film received sharply divided reactions.
Over the years, however, the film has been revisited and is now often regarded as one of Karan’s more layered and thought-provoking projects.
Nearly two decades later, the filmmaker is returning to the same emotional space, this time through a long-format series.
Speaking about the adaptation, KJo shared, “We’re actually adapting it into a long-form series. The root of that film… it was released in 2006 to very polarised responses.”
Karan recalled how people questioned his intent at the time. “Many asked me if I was unwell after that film, saying, ‘How can you endorse infidelity?’ And I was like, ‘How can you endorse something that’s already so sold out’?”
The series, currently under wraps with no details yet on its platform or cast, is expected to delve deeper into the same emotional conflicts, something the long-format structure naturally allows.
Karan recalled an anecdote from an early screening that highlighted the discomfort the film provoked. During a scene in which Shah Rukh and Rani’s characters check into a hotel, a couple in the audience initially assumed it was a dream sequence. When they realised it wasn’t, they chose to walk out.
For Karan, that reaction reflected a deeper contradiction in how audiences engage with such themes.
“We are in such a polarised audience space… people judge what happens in their homes, they brush it under the carpet, but they don’t want to watch it on screen, even though it’s probably a reality in their own lives,” he reflected.
This tension between reality and social denial is what made ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’ stand out back then, and still keeps it relevant today.
Without sharing details, Karan confirmed that the project is in development and will be announced soon.
In the same conversation, Karan also confirmed the return of his talk show ‘Koffee With Karan’, saying that Season 9 will be released around Diwali this year.
Since its launch in 2004, ‘Koffee With Karan’ has become one of Bollywood’s most popular talk shows, often making headlines for its open conversations and controversies.
Karan’s last directorial was ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’, starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt.
