Guwahati, Nov. 13 (PTI): Filmmaker Karan Johar has been trolled on social media with netizens slamming him for allegedly “insulting” the culture and the traditional headgears of the people of the Northeast.
Johar uploaded a video clip on his Instagram profile on November 10, shot during ‘India’s Got Talent’ TV show, where he and actress-politician Kirron Kher along with actress Malaika Arora are co-judges.
The clip shows Kher wearing a spiked bamboo Arunachalee hat and the Bollywood director exclaiming, “oh my god, what is that on your head?”
Kher replies, “People from Arunachal Pradesh have brought it for me and they have got this for you,” showing him an Assamese ‘Japi’, traditional hat made of bamboo, dried leaves and pieces of coloured cloths.
To her query: “Why are you not wearing your hat,” Karan Johar is heard replying, “Because you have guts, I don’t.”
The filmmaker jocularly continues, “You are looking you are going to break into some kind of qawwali.”
The BJP MP quips back, “How can I break into a qawwali in a bamboo hat. What’s wrong with you? You don’t know the states of this country.”
One netizen, responding to Johar’s video clip, commented, “Our Prime Minister, President wear this Japi proudly when they visit northeast and they are leaving no stones unturned for the development of Northeast. At that time there are people like you who actually don’t know about NorthEast and are actually insulting our culture”.
Japi is the “pride of Assam”, insisted another Instagram user.
“So plz if u can not love it dn u dont have right to insult itpeople of north east has verry rich culture. U can think us junghli but we are not (sic),” another post said.
Yet another agitated Instagram user remarked, “Japi from Assam, it’s our emotion. Yahh no doubt you don’t know about Japi because this Assamese tradition is bigger than your film industry And I have a free advice to you, please come to our Northeast and we’ll teach you how we can wear Japi without having the gut (sic)”.
