Karan Johar: Caring Too Much Cost Me My Mental Health | Bhaavesh Gandhi | SSWB #bollywood #podcast

Karan Johar: Caring Too Much Cost Me My Mental Health | Bhaavesh Gandhi | SSWB #bollywood #podcast

Now there’s a theory that says that a human being can have a maximum of 150 meaningful relationships at one time. Now because you have such an extensive social and professional life that must be very difficult for you as an empath. How do you differentiate with emotionally within your inner circle and the outer world? How do you deal with it? these some things that just come naturally to you in your relationships which is like being there for for your closest friends when you need them and also um being empathetic enough to understand and read the room that your friend is in. There’s like that song many a time when you can see a friend’s face and you know that there’s a front here like this is a front and if you are a genuine empath and if you’re genuinely tuned in to your friend uh you can you’ll have to read through the you know the mood and even his or her fake for the lack of a better way of saying it approach to you know the situation that they’re hiding for whatever reason. So that is the one thing that I hope and pray that I continue to do is to always be there for the like the people in my immediate inner circle, people I’ve loved and who love me, right? People outside of that uh you know my genuine attempt and effort has always been is to be kind. The two words that my dad always instilled in me was like be kind. It takes very little to be kind. In fact, it takes so much more to be unkind and to be to be like nasty or rude or angry or just even on a film set or in a prof as much as you can be kind, which means basics respond to messages. You know, the first thing is respond to messages. We all being busy is so overrated according to me. You’re never too busy for anything. We have enough time in our life to do everything to honor our relationships to be there for our parents, our children, our siblings, our friends and the world outside. You have enough time. First be there. Be present in the moment you are with the person who’s asking you a question respond. Could be via email, WhatsApp message, iMessage, anybody. First respond, right? Be there. Then when you meet that person, you’re doing a meeting in a professional meeting. There’s a way like I have I have a wave somebody comes up to me and these are small gestures Bhav that I feel people don’t do like they come my natural instinct is to stand up but I’ve seen people who don’t move from their chair and they just shake their hands I’m like that to me is rude if I’m at a restaurant and someone comes up to me stand up someone wishes me and I haven’t recognized them be kind the other thing that I believe that we all tend to do is your mood is your business you cannot take your mood with you, right? When you go out into the outside world cuz you’re working, right? My job or most of our jobs involve and entail us dealing with people, right? Now, you had a bad morning, you got bad news, either you sit at home and handle that situation and don’t step out. But you chose to step out or you’ve had a fight with your spouse, your partner, your parent, your you got bad news, you whatever has gone drastically wrong in your life, you have decided that decision to step out of your house. Nobody should be subjected to your mood. It’s not their fault that this happened to you. So why should you be snapping at somebody, be angry, be be nasty? Because something terrible happened in your life. And I understood this at a very young age cuz I remember there was an actor who snapped at me when I was 24. I was directing my first film and he was very rude to me. Um and uh I heard it and I I did what I had to and I called him back and I went and met him and I said look sir with due respect if you don’t like me don’t work with me but you said this and you spoke very rudely to me and he turned around and said but I was in a bad mood and I realized that this I’m never going to do again that that your mood is your problem but it takes very little behav. So when you ask me how do you deal with 150 or 100 or 50 people firstly just all two words be kind and then everything else takes over because once you’re kind that relationship is already relaxed and I hope that people realize this especially when you said that you know you get up acknowledge a person because all you want all all of us want is to be seen is to be heard is to be understood now just that one gesture of if I’m walking towards you get up and just smile at me you don’t have to have a whole conversation with me. I feel seen. I feel heard and I understand that okay, you you you see me and that’s enough in that moment. But the where I was leading with my question about you being an empath, I know that empaths take a huge energetic backlash because you’re also absorbing a lot of people’s energies when you’re in a room full of people. What do you do to safeguard yourself, especially now that you know you’re an empath? That also is an answer that I can divide between decades of my life. Like up to the age of like actually till I was 50 years old. I’m 53 today. I realized that I was getting very concerned with other people’s problems and absorbing that energy and it was not good for me. Right? So um I realized that after a point you can be an empath but not at the risk of your own mental health. Right? because I realized that years of me hearing other people and not expressing myself has actually resulted in the mental health issue that happened with me like you know two years ago two and a half years ago when I had my about of an anxiety attack and very recently again where I realized that I’m just not expressing myself because all I’m just hearing hearing cuz I have a big problem I’m there for people I like to hear their problems I don’t like to express myself right so I actually decided subconsciously that after a point I’m going to cleanse myself of these feelings. I’m going to hear you out, give you my advice, but I’m going to have to forget about it when I go back, right? I’m going to do my best to not take that baggage of somebody else’s trauma back to my bedroom because what was happening is that I was sitting with that baggage and constantly concerned. But I was like, how many people are really asking me about my feelings? Yeah. Who has really come up to me recently and said, are you okay? Very rarely, you know, I’ve had those people who touch base with me and about my emotions. Right. For all those who are in their 30s and 40s will start understanding this because when you’re my age you realize that now yeah I’ve given myself to many now it’s my age to receive right now I really feel where I’m at right now I’m probably going to come across distant to many and that’s by choice because I feel like I have to make this about me right now right because for the my own sanity my own mental health because I have to raise my children on my own be there for my mother who’s has combating health issues. I need to protect myself. For me to protect myself, it’s like I need to wear my mask first before I help anybody else. So, I’m going to make this about myself now. So from an empath, I’ll have to become less of an empath and more of a self-preservation person, self-care person, self even healing because I think I’m also carrying baggage of relationships, friendships that went wrong or sour and I feel I have to deal with all of that. So I am in that zone of life right now B where I am wearing my own mask. Yeah.

Can a human being truly maintain 150 meaningful relationships?

How do empaths like Karan Johar navigate the overwhelming emotional demands of personal and professional life?

In this raw and heartfelt Short-Cut from the Soul Safar with Bhaav series, Karan Johar opens up about:

💬 How being an empath affects his inner world
🧠 The mental toll of constantly absorbing energy from others
💡 Why kindness is his life mantra both on and off film sets
💔 His experience with anxiety and emotional burnout
🛡 The shift from overgiving to self-preservation

Karan shares powerful personal stories, including the time he confronted a senior actor for being unkind and the profound lesson it taught him: “Your mood is your business.”

📌 If you’re in your 30s, 40s or beyond and struggling to balance emotional labor, people-pleasing, and self-care then this one’s for you.

💫 Enjoyed this clip? Dive into the full chat with Karan Johar – Streaming Now on Soul Safar With Bhaav.

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Credits:

Host: Bhaavesh Gandhi
Guest: Karan Johar
Director: Bhaavesh Gandhi
Associate Director: Aniket Sritava
Produced by: Electric Apples Entertainment
Producer: Niranjan Iyengar & Bhaavesh Gandhi (Electric Apples Entertainment)
Director of Photography: Pratiksh Shetty
DOP Assistants: Jemin Dhanak & Parikshit Dekate
Production Designer: Sriram Iyengar & Sujit Sawant (Yantra Design Studio)
Post-Production Agency: EdiXual Creations
Episode Editor: Manish Gupta (EdiXual Creations) & Bhaavesh Gandhi
Graphic Design: Manish Gupta (EdiXual Creations)
Sound Recordist: Rajendra Kumar
Executive Producer: Aniket Sritava
Line production agency: EXC Originals
Production Manager: Kritika Banare
Host Jewellery: Akirahin (Niharika Bhasin)
Host Hair & Makeup: Nikita Busa
Celebrity Manager: Kritika Banare
Behind the scenes: Jaynil Chheda
Production Boys: Ashok
Soul Safar Logo Design: Ozal Patel
Logo Animation: Virtuz Vibes
Logo Music Design: Acoustique Productions
SSWB Marketing Team: Creative Calendar
Camera Company : Pixel Nine Equipments
Camera Attendants: Umesh Singh & Tinku Singh
Light Company: PR Cine Lights
Light boys: Rajesh Mehta & Mithlesh
Location: Dharma Production