I'm not embarrassed or ashamed to say it: Karan Johar on his sexual orientation

New Delhi: Karan Johar said on Saturday that he was not "embarrassed" but "proud" of his sexuality, asserting that it's his orientation which defines him.

The filmmaker, who for the first time addressed the curiosity around his sexuality in his biography 'An Unsuitable Boy,' said the book was his final answer to the world and he will not get into any further details.

"I have never expressed my sexual orientation in those many words. I have insinuated a lot and have said what I wanted to say in my book.

"I will never say that I am embarrassed or ashamed to say it. I am very proud of who I am and who I will always be. Whatever I have written in the book is the truth and I stand by every word of it," Johar said at Sahitya Aaj Tak.

The filmmaker said people criticised him for not being direct about his orientation in the book, and he still gets trolled on social media for it.

"There were two kinds of criticism. First, I was asked why I didn't make it clear what I wanted to say. And my reply to that is, 'it's my right'. Another criticism I faced was that people asked me why I am like this. There are so many people out there who don't understand the concept of personal orientation.

"Every morning I get up, I face a lot of trolling on Twitter, Instagram and on other platforms. If I post a picture with a pout, then people make filthy comments," he said.

Johar added that the comments used to make him angry initially, but now he feels "amused and just smile when people make such comments".

"Whatever I am, I'm proud of myself... The orientation I have, is who I am," he said.

Talking about his films, the director said he only creates the kind of cinema he understands well.

"The magic of big screen is different. People have often said that I don't make real films. I say to them that I don't know how to make real films. I know how to sell big dreams of big screen. That's what I know and understand," he said.

The 45-year-old director defended himself for making films about elites, saying, "Don't the rich have problems in life? I make what comes to my mind. I never try to pretend to make something different."

Johar said whenever he has tried anything different - be it 'My Name is Khan' or a short film for 'Bombay Talkies', which addressed homosexuality - he has never got credit for it.

"Unfortunately, if my name had been Karan Kashyap, then I would have got a lot more credit," he quipped.

"Now I have accepted this that I will never get credit, so I just do what I want to do," he said.