Women in Karan Johar's movies: From traditional portrayals to independent leads

For decades, Karan Johar has shaped Bollywood's emotional and visual language, from chiffon saris blowing in Swiss valleys to dramatic family dinners laced with tears. But beneath the gloss and melodrama lies a quieter transformation, one that reflects how the filmmaker's depiction of women has grown over the years.

In Johar's early work, women were central, yet often defined by their roles in relation to men. In Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Tina (Rani Mukerji) is the quintessential pretty girl who wins the hero's heart in college but dies young, making space for Anjali (Kajol), the tomboy-turned-saree-clad traditional woman, to eventually find love with Rahul. The story, while iconic, clearly pivots around the male protagonist's emotional arc, with the women existing to enable his journey.

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001) carried forward this theme. Jaya Bachchan's Nandini is the quiet, intuitive mother who senses every move her son makes. Kajol's Anjali (in a far more comedic role than in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai) adds spunk and laughter to the family, but again, these women largely function within domestic settings, loving, nurturing, sacrificing.

The first major departure in Johar's treatment of female characters came with Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), one of his most polarising films. Rani Mukerji's Maya is an unhappily married woman who finds herself drawn to another man. For perhaps the first time in a mainstream Hindi film by a major director, the heroine is allowed to be emotionally dissatisfied, and to seek fulfillment outside marriage.

While the film sparked debates for its take on extramarital relationships, Maya's complexity signaled a growing space for female agency in Johar's narratives.

A decade later, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016) offered another bold portrayal with Alizeh (Anushka Sharma). She is not driven by the pursuit of romance, in fact, she consistently values platonic love over romantic longing. Even as the protagonist, Ayan (Ranbir Kapoor), pines for her, Alizeh maintains her boundaries.

She does not reciprocate his feelings just to meet audience expectations, and she refuses to be emotionally manipulated into loving him back. Her decision to remain friends, despite Ayan's persistent love, marked a shift in how female autonomy was represented in Johar's cinema.

The transformation reached a new peak in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023), Johar's return to direction after seven years. Rani Chatterjee (Alia Bhatt), a fearless journalist from a progressive Bengali family, challenges not only gender stereotypes but also social expectations. When she enters the patriarchal household of her love interest, Rocky (Ranveer Singh), she refuses to "adjust." Instead, she inspires change, standing up for sidelined women in the family and initiating conversations around consent, culture, and power.

Rani is not just a romantic lead, she is the moral core of the story. She chooses love on her own terms and walks away when it doesn't align with her values, returning only when there is genuine change. This is a far cry from the women of Johar's earlier films, who would often bend themselves to fit love's mould.

Beyond direction, Johar's Dharma Productions has supported woman-led narratives like Raazi (2018) and Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020). Both films centred on real women, an undercover spy and an IAF pilot who broke barriers in male-dominated spaces.

Yes, Johar's world is still adorned with designer wardrobes and dream sequences. But within that fantasy, his women are no longer just beautiful accessories to a man's journey. They are writers of their own stories, assertive, complicated, and unafraid to walk alone.

From Anjali's silent transformation to Rani's vocal resistance, Karan Johar's women have grown alongside India's evolving cinema and they're finally taking centre stage.