Karan Johar also discussed the connection between his film My Name Is Khan and Lagaan. Bollywood had a poor year in 2022, with several high-profile films failing to find an audience and only a small number of releases finding success. In a recent roundtable discussion hosted by Galatta Plus, producer and director Karan Johar expressed his opinions on the direction that mainstream Bollywood has taken over the years. He claimed that the well-known writing team Salim-Javed (Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar) produced one of the most memorable movies in the 1970s, but that we neglected to further exploit them. We let go of that movie theater and traveled to Switzerland, for which Salim Saab and Javed Saab deserve our deepest gratitude.

Karan was alluding to the 1990s romantic comedies, of which he himself was a part. Shah Rukh Khan was made as a result of everyone, including himself, deciding to join the love train after Hum Aapke Hain Koun, he claimed. We let go of all of our origins from the 1970s, and when Lagaan was nominated for an Academy Award in 2001, we thought, "Oh, now we'll do these kinds of films," and continued doing so until the 2010s. In my mind, My Name is Khan is still a precursor to Lagaan, which debuted together with Dabangg and once again (changed patterns), inspiring the sentiment "Now let's start making commercial films again." The issue is that we truly lack conviction and a backbone.

Regarding the kind of year Bollywood has had, Karan stated that a significant portion of the box office revenue originates from Mumbai and Delhi, but that since the epidemic, these two metropolises' crowds aren't frequenting the theaters as often. Therefore, he continued, "what has been working is only the spectacle films, even if they are films in dubbing."

On the professional front, Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, which will be released on April 28, 2023, will mark Karan's return to directing the following year. Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, and Shabana Azmi make up the film's ensemble cast.