Karan Johar’s Koffee With Karan accused of Plagiarism

Karan Johar’s chat show Koffee With Karan came under fire for alleged plagiarism and lifting content without giving due credit to the original writer.

A writer-journalist took to social media and revealed that the show’s recent episode, which featured Janhvi Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan, had used her ideas without giving them any credit or mention.

The content was part of the game segment where Janhvi and Sara were asked to guess films.

In the second episode of Koffee With Karan Season 7, Sara and Janhvi had to guess films based on badly described plots.

One of the questions saw Karan Johar describing his film Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham as, “a grown man who can’t tie his shoelaces ends up accidentally revealing his hidden identity to his former nanny.”

Writer-journalist Manya Lohit Ahuja posted the clip from the episode, along with an article she had written for an entertainment portal in 2020, which contained the same question.

The article was titled ‘Calling all Bollywood Buffs: Guess the movie with the help of these badly explained plots’ and included the K3G question.

So #KoffeeWithKaran lifted the IP I started at @iDivaOfficial and used the whole copy verbatim??? I came up with this concept and I had a lot of fun writing these but to not be credited just because it was frivolous is not acceptable!? pic.twitter.com/5RYlz6AvGj

— Manya Lohita Ahuja (@mushroomgalouti) July 15, 2022

Manya wrote: “So #KoffeeWithKaran lifted the IP I started at @iDivaOfficial and used the whole copy verbatim???

“I came up with this concept and I had a lot of fun writing these but to not be credited just because it was frivolous is not acceptable!? If you lift the copy, give the credit.”

She also wrote on Instagram: “I have decided that I cannot let this go. I want credit for my work – it may not be world-changing work, but it is mine nonetheless.”

She tagged Karan Johar, Disney Plus Hotstar and creative writer Shreemi Verma on the post.

A recurring subject in the episode was Janhvi and Sara’s dating history.

While only the briefest hints were made about both of them having dated Kartik Aaryan, Karan did reveal, much to Janhvi and Sara’s surprise, that they dated siblings in the past.

Leaving them visibly red in the face, Karan said: “I am tracking back to before the pandemic. I don’t know the level of your friendship today, but I don’t remember there being any.”

“I remember that you both have dated siblings before.”

Karan continued: “I mean it was the past. You both dated two brothers. And the commonality between the three of us is that they both used to live in my building.”