Filmmaker and producer Karan Johar said the makers of Lust Stories aren’t trying to compete with Salman Khan, whose forthcoming movie Race 3 also releases in India on June 15.
Johar was speaking at a promotional event for the film’s trailer along with Bhumi Pednekar, Sanjay Kapoor, Zoya Akthar, Jaideep Ahalwat, Dibakar Banerjee, producer Ronnie Screwvala and Ashi Dua.
When asked whether Lust Stories has the power to overpower Race 3, Johar said: “Of course not. Salman Khan is on a different platform. He is the big master of mainstream cinema. Race 3 is going to be humongous film. It’s a franchise film and it’s a totally different film into a totally different syntax. We are not competing with him.”
Johar continued: “We don’t have that ability to fight with Salman or Race 3. We are actually very happy four filmmakers who have made a tiny little film for which we are grateful to Netflix. We don’t have right to compete with the magnitude of Salman. I probably will go to watch Race 3 instead of Lust Stories on June 15.”
Asked whether Netflix gave him the platform to tell a story the way he wanted, Johar said: “I definitely believe that the film is pushing some boundaries but I would be happy to do the same even in films.”
“Just because this film is called Lust Stories, it doesn’t mean that you can show overt amount of sex scenes and it has got something that is out there and in your face. All stories in this film are very emotional and deep stories.”
Throwing some light on the concept of the film, he said: “We all know film is called Lust Stories so the film is about love and lust. I think it’s exciting that we all decided on this theme together and thought that all directors would have an individual interpretation of love and lust so invariably when you have given choice between love and lust, more sensible people will choose lust only because it’s infinitely more exciting than love is.”
Johar’s short film Ice-Cream features Vicky Kaushal, Kiara Advani and Neha Dhupia in lead roles.
Lust Stories includes four short stories; the three others are directed by Zoya Akthar, Dibakar Banerjee and Anurag Kashyap.
It will release on June 15 on Netflix.
