Now you know what Karan Johar was quietly working on from home during the Covid lockdown. Not the screenplay of Dharma Productions’ next big film. But his first ever children’s book. It’s titled The Big Thoughts of Little Luv. And KJo took to social media to proudly announce it today. Crediting his twins Roohi and Yash for being his inspiration, he went on to tell his legion of followers that he wanted to share something exciting – and posted a Coming Soon video of the book based on his experiences of parenting and featuring the twins!
This is a different kind of writing for KJo who has been the screenwriter of such box office Bollywood hits as Kuch Kuch Hota Kai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, My Name is Khan, Student of The Year, Bombay Talkies, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and segments of the Netflix anthologies Lust Stories and Ghost Stories. It’s also different from his honest, heartwarming and insightful autobiography An Unsuitable Boy. And it’s the first time KJo has shot something and then written its story because The Big Thoughts of Little Luv is undoubtedly motivated by his popular home videos with Roohi and Yash on Instagram called Lockdown with the Johars.
Wanted to share something exciting! My first picture book for kids ! #thebigthoughtsoflittleLUV ! Coming soon! Thank you @mrsfunnybones for introducing me to the wonderful @Chikisarkar @juggernautbooks pic.twitter.com/QkZdYzCcEL
— Karan Johar (@karanjohar) September 1, 2020
I remember KJo exclusively describing his first experiences of parenting to me in May 2017. Sixty-six days after Roohi and Yash, born prematurely on February 7, were discharged from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Surya Mother and Child Super Specialty Hospital in Mumbai on March 29. He looked zoned out. Like he had just rolled out of bed. And was sleep deprived. He was on “paternity leave”. The babies had taken over his life. They were now his world. I don’t think Karan, otherwise a notorious workhorse of a filmmaker and arguably Bollywood’s most inveterate party animal, went out much. He quite simply had his hands full at home. Bollywood’s newest and most extraordinary single parent had become both, a doting father and fussy mother. Here’s what the Proud Papa indulgently told me about parenting and his twins, Roohi and Yash.
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“My life has changed after Roohi and Yash arrived! It’s a sea change. At 44, this is my biggest blockbuster. I still haven’t realised the enormity of what’s happened. They’re only two months old. And all they do is eat, sleep, burp, wail and poop. Kabhi khushi, kabhie gham! While I stare at them in wonder. But I can’t get over the fact that they are mine. It’s like a powerful switch has suddenly come on in my life filling the emptiness in my personal space with new energy. I get teary-eyed just looking at them. These are strange emotions for me. It’s surreal to think of them as my daughter and son. It’s daunting even, but in a gorgeous way, when I wake up suddenly at night to remember that I have life breathing in the next room that I’m totally accountable for.
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“When they were born, I knew that my work, travel and social commitments would take a back seat because I’d want to give them unconditional love, care and attention. I’ve decided that as soon as they are old enough, and before they start school, I’m going to bring Roohi and Yash to the office. Why not! Aren’t they productions of Dharma Productions? I want everybody here to know them. I want them to be all over the place. And I’m already looking at building a crèche here. It will be like Disneyland! I’m also looking forward to them traveling with me when I go outstation on shoots. Bebo’s son Taimur is a few months older than Roohi and Yash and she and I have already started making plans for holidays together!
“The day they came home is an experience that’s going to stay etched in my memory. Like the premier of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in 1998. It’s my first film and I still remember every moment. The day I carried Roohi and Yash home was like that. Life changing. Actually, it was a full on K3G moment! Very dramatic. But it was only the trailer. And fatherhood is proving to be a breathtaking rollercoaster ride. I’m struggling to do the right things for my kids and be responsible towards them. When they were conceived, I was ecstatic, but I told myself I would be a responsible father and not a paranoid mother. I felt enormously blessed as a parent. I knew this was the beginning of a different kind of love story. The start of the best phase of my life. Mothers go through these emotions. Fathers come in later. But I was there right from the start.
“Now, my babies are the superstars of my universe. I have an entire library of books on baby care. I haven’t read any of them! But I listen to the advice mothers give me. I’m on several Whatsapp Baby Groups. Everybody has their own gyaan. And I’ve received about 3,000 suggestions already. On pediatricians, nurses, how to make the nursery adaptive, what music to play for them – Baby Mozart or Baby Beethoven or simple nursery rhymes, which formula is best – Nan Pro, Similac or Enfamil, how to burp them, monitor their temperatures, when to take them for their immunity shots, what to do if they have nappy rash, what to do when they cry, I listen to everybody and then take my own decisions. I could give paranoid mothers a master class!”
Phew, can’t wait for The Big Thoughts of Little Luv to be out! In his post today, KJo said it was a “charming, funny book that looks at how we impose differences between girls and boys as we raise them”. Beautifully illustrated, the book tells the story of twins Luv and Kusha as they try to understand gender, and the ways in which we treat boys and girls differently. Today was only the trailer. Picture abhi baki hai, as KJo himself would have said. The Big Thoughts of Little Luv is being published by Chiki Sarkar for Juggernaut Books. Interestingly, the filmmaker and author thanks Mrs. Funnybones (Twinkle Khanna) for introducing him to Sarkar.
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