Goodbye Koffee with Karan? Looking back at 10 controversies that shook Bollywood and even cricket

For two decades, Karan Johar has run Bollywood’s best-dressed interrogation room: a plush couch, a steaming mug, and a rapid-fire round designed to get stars to say things they’d spend years taking back. Now the show is ending. On 30 September 2026, Johar announced that Season 9 would be the last. Before the final cup is poured, here are ten times the couch did more lasting damage than the people sitting on it.

1. The exes’ club convenes (Season 3, 2010)
Some guest pairings are booked. This one was plotted. Karan seated Deepika Padukone and Sonam Kapoor side by side, two women with a bone to pick, and Ranbir Kapoor took most of the hits. Sonam said, Ranbir needed a stylist, he was a great friend but not a good boyfriend, and she sympathised with Deepika for staying with him as long as she did. The rapid-fire round turned into group therapy, and Ranbir never signed up for it.

2. The Kapoor household is not amused

The jokes landed hardest at Ranbir’s parents’ home. Neetu Singh was on holiday abroad when a well-wisher told her about the comments, and she phoned Karan. Rishi Kapoor reportedly believed Karan had egged the actresses on for ratings. Years later, Karan partly admitted it, conceding that the two had exaggerated things about Ranbir and that he shouldn’t have let it go to air. It was a rare moment of the host admitting the brew had been too strong.

3. Ranbir started it? (Season 3, 2010)

To be fair, Ranbir drew first blood, a few weeks earlier in the same season. Sitting with Imran Khan and asked to rank actresses by sex appeal, the two put Sonam last, calling her a classic beauty. Sonam’s later remark that he needed a stylist suddenly looked less random. Moreover, Ranbir's brazen attitude about his girlfriends and ignoring their calls, did not go down well.

4. The long goodbye of Ranbir Kapoor

For a while, Ranbir kept coming back to the couch that had roasted him. He came with Imran Khan in 2010. In 2013, reportedly not ready to go public with Katrina Kaif, he came with the safest possible partner: his cousin Kareena. In 2016, he sat beside Ranveer Singh, who was then dating his ex, Deepika. After that, he stopped coming.

When Season 7 opened with his new wife Alia Bhatt on the couch, Ranbir stayed away. He told Karan that if he said something it would go wrong, and joked that he’d only come if Karan paid him what Karan himself was earning. For Season 8, he reportedly suggested a chat at Karan’s house instead, off camera. Three appearances, then a firm no. One of the industry’s most guarded stars had learned the show’s lesson: the safest answer is not showing up.

5. The accent wars: Kareena vs Priyanka

Bollywood’s most-watched cold war, fought over pronunciation, around Season 3 (2010–11). Asked what she would like to ask Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor wanted to know where Priyanka got that accent. Priyanka, appearing later with Shahid Kapoor (Kareena’s ex), had her answer ready: from the same place as Kareena’s then-boyfriend, Saif Ali Khan.

The ending was surprisingly warm. By 2019, the two shared the couch willingly and seemed to enjoy it.

6. Tusshar, Preity, and the botox answer (Season 3, 2011)

In the word-association game, Tusshar Kapoor heard “Botox” and said Preity Zinta. His defence was that the rapid-fire round is only for laughs and gives you no time to think, which is either an excuse or a perfect summary of the format. He later apologised to Zinta.

7. Emraan Hashmi plays to win (Season 4, 2014)

Emraan heard “plastic” and named Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Even the set seemed to sense trouble: he later recalled that Karan stopped the shoot and asked his team whether they could actually air it, and a couple of people said yes. In a 2019 Filmfare interview, Aishwarya said the worst thing anyone had said about her was that she was fake and plastic. By 2024, Emraan said he regretted the remark as distasteful and would apologise if she had been hurt. His most honest explanation was also his funniest: he only wanted to win the hamper. He admitted he made enemies, and he never went back.

8. Kangana turns the tables (Season 5, 2017)

This is where the nepotism debate began. Promoting Rangoon alongside Saif Ali Khan, Kangana Ranaut called Karan a flag-bearer of nepotism on his own show. Karan responded by accusing her of playing the woman and victim card. Then came the sequel. At IIFA that July, Karan, Saif and Varun Dhawan joked about owing their careers to their parents and shouted “Nepotism rocks” together. The internet was not laughing. Karan apologised, admitted the Kangana jab had gone too far, and promised to stop talking about both nepotism and her. One line on the couch had become an industry-wide debate.

9. Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul: The episode that cost a series (Season 6, 2019)

This is the only Koffee scandal that ended with an official inquiry. The cricketers’ remarks about women aired in early January 2019, and the backlash was swift. The Committee of Administrators suspended both players on January 11 and called them home from the Australia tour. Hotstar removed the episode and its promos, and a brand sponsoring Pandya pulled out of its deal.

Pandya was also criticised for a racially insensitive remark. The BCCI ombudsman fined each player Rs 20 lakh, including Rs 1 lakh for each of ten widows of paramilitary constables killed on duty and Rs 10 lakh to a fund for blind cricket. Karan did not fall back on “it was just rapid fire”. He said he felt deeply responsible because it was his platform, and later said he would not invite any cricketers again; he had never even asked Virat Kohli. One episode effectively banned an entire sport from the couch.

10. Alia Bhatt Fails the Koffee Quiz (Season 4, 2013)

This was a lot lighter than the others, whew.
Alia Bhatt was still new to the industry, fresh from Student of the Year, when she sat on the couch with co-stars Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. Karan’s general-knowledge quiz asked who the President of India was. Alia hit the buzzer and answered Prithviraj Chauhan, a king from the 12th century. The correct answer was Pranab Mukherjee. Some generously suggested she had mixed him up with Prithviraj Chavan, then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, but the internet wasn’t interested. “Alia Bhatt is so dumb” jokes ran for months. Instead of issuing a statement, she joined a self-parody called Genius of the Year, directed by Shakun Batra.

Her father Mahesh Bhatt, Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra and Karan himself all appeared in it, and it drew around 1.8 million views in a single day. Years later, Arjun was still teasing her that the one answer had wiped out the film industry’s combined IQ. Alia went on to become one of the most bankable stars of her generation. Nearly everyone else on this list who slipped up on the couch ended up apologising, while Alia laughed at herself.

The last cup
Over twenty-two years, the formula barely changed: a playful question, a reckless answer, a news cycle, and an apology that made fresh headlines of its own. The guests changed, but the hamper never stopped working as bait. Season 9 will tell us whether Koffee ends with a hush or with one last scandal. Given its history, the scandal is the safer bet.