Karan Johar trolled for ‘insulting’ ethnic headgears from Northeast India

Karan Johar, Bollywood filmmaker and TV reality show host, has been trolled on social media for allegedly “insulting” the culture and the traditional headgears of the people of the Northeast region. Johar took to Instagram on Sunday and posted a video clip of a shot of his ‘India’s Got Talent’ TV show, where he, along with actress-politician Kirron Kher, was one of the judges.

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In the video, Kher is seen wearing a spiked bamboo Arunachalee hat and the Bollywood director exclaiming, “oh my god, what is that on your head?”

“People from Arunachal Pradesh have brought it for me and they have got this for you,” Kher says, holding out an Assamese ‘Japi’, traditional hat made of bamboo, dried leaves and pieces of coloured cloths, to Johar. When asked why he wasn’t wearing the hat, Johar replies, “Because you have guts, I don’t.”

The jokes, however, did not go down well with the netizens.

One viewer commented on the video clip: “Our Prime Minister, President wear this Japi proudly when they visit Northeast and they are leaving no stones unturned for the development of Northeast. At that time there are people like you who actually don’t know about NorthEast and are actually insulting our culture”.

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“So plz if u can not love it dn u dont have right to insult it. People of northeast has very rich culture. U can think us jungli but we are not (sic),” another Instagram user said.

“Japi from Assam, it’s our emotion... this Assamese tradition is bigger than your film industry And I have a free advice to you, please come to our Northeast and we’ll teach you how we can wear Japi without having the gut (sic),” another viewer wrote.

Actress Malaika Arora was also on the judge panel of the talent hunt.

The states in the Northeast have consist of several different tribes and castes. And the people are proud of their unique culture and colourful traditional attire and clothes, and often flaunt them well during functions and festivals.