Salman Khan, Aishwarya And Abhishek Bachchan, Katrina Kaif And Vicky Kaushal

Salman Khan, Aishwarya-Abhishek, Katrina-Vicky at KJo’s party

Karan Johar celebrated turning 50 with the grandest of parties held at Yash Raj Studios in Mumbai on Wednesday night. Everyone who is anyone in Bollywood was there – those who were not had good reason to be absent. Chief among the absentees were Alia Bhatt, to whom Karan Johar is mentor, and Deepika Padukone – Alia is abroad filming her Hollywood debut Heart Of Stone and Deepika is currently on jury duty at the Cannes Film Festival. Also absent, at least from the red carpet, were Karan Johar’s closest friends Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan – Gauri was at a more intimate gathering held at KJo’s home to bring in his birthday the night before.

Nearly everyone else marked their presence at Karan Johar’s big fat Bollywood birthday party. Salman Khan, with whom the filmmaker reportedly shared frosty relations in the past (and plainly a thing of the past, topped the celebrity roll-call.

Salman Khan at Karan Johar’s party

Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal, who married last December, attended together. Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan made a glamorous couple’s entry, having recently returned from Cannes – Abhishek and Karan Johar have been friends since they were children.

The Bachchans and Katrina-Vicky at Karan Johar’s party

The stars of much-awaited upcoming film Laal Singh Chaddha arrived with plus-ones – Karan Johar’s close friend Kareena Kapoor was escorted by husband Saif Ali Khan and Aamir Khan attended with ex-wife Kiran Rao, also a very good friend of the birthday boy. Karan and Kareena share one of Bollywood’s storied friendships and working relationships; he directed her in films like Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and We Are Family.

Kareena-Saif and Aamir-Kiran at Karan Johar’s party

Alia Bhatt was represented by husband Ranbir Kapoor who escorted mother Neetu. Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani, Neetu’s co-stars of the upcoming film JuggJugg Jeeyo, posed together on the red carpet.

Ranbir with mom Neetu Kapoor and Varun-Kiara at Karan Johar’s party

Hrithik Roshan brought along girlfriend Saba Azad; his ex-wife Sussanne Khan also arrived with a date – boyfriend Arslan Goni.

Hrithik’s date was Saba, Sussanne’s was Arslan

Some of Karan Johar’s closest friends were the earliest arrivals at the party – Shweta Bachchan, Farah Khan and Manish Malhotra. All three were at the previous night’s party as well.

Shweta Bachchan, Farah Khan and Manish Malhotra at Karan Johar’s party

Shweta’s daughter Navya Naveli Nanda arrived later, posing with friend Ananya Panday. Their other friend Shanaya Kapoor was there was well – Suhana Khan, the remaining member for their squad, did not appear to be at the party. Ananya was launched by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and Shanaya will be as well.

Ananya, Navya Naveli and Shanaya at Karan Johar’s party

Siblings Sara Ali Khan and Ibrahim showed up together. Shanaya’s cousin Janhvi Kapoor, also a Dharma talent, attended as well.

Sara, Ibrahim and Janhvi at Karan Johar’s party

Karan Johar himself appeared on the red carpet an posed with a select few from his guest list, among them Rani Mukerji who made her debut in his film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and is married to KJo’s cousin and Yash Raj boss Aditya Chopra. Malaika Arora attended the party without boyfriend Arjun Kapoor.

Karan Johar with Rani. Malaika came solo

Shahid Kapoor came with wife Mira. His brother Ishaan Khatter was at the party as well – Shahid and Ishaan just got back from the biking trip across France.

Shahid, Mira and Ishaan at Karan Johar’s party

Parineeti Chopra, Tara Sutaria, Kriti Sanon and other actresses made the red carpet glam, dressed in their party best.

Parineeti, Kriti, Tara at Karan Johar’s party

Ranveer Singh, who flew to Cannes to be with wife Deepika Padukone and appears to be back, went to the party solo. Other stag arrivals included Vijay Deverakonda, Tiger Shroff, Sidharth Malhotra, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Rajkummar Rao.

Ranveer, Vijay, Tiger at Karan Johar’s party

Siddhant, Sidharth and Rajkummar at Karan Johar’s party

The couple’s corner was filled up with Preity Zinta and husband Gene Goodenough, Genelia D’Souza and Riteish Deshmukh, Neha Dhupia and Angad Bedi and others.

Preity-Gene, Genelia-Riteish, Neha-Angad at Karan Johar’s party

Karan Johar’s old friend Twinkle Khanna attended without husband Akshay Kumar, who recently recovered from COVID. Sonali Bendra, Tabu, Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla and Raveena Tandon attended the party as well.

Twinkle, Tabu and Sonali at Karan Johar’s party

Madhuri and family, Juhi and Raveena at Karan Johar’s party

Karan Johar, currently directing Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh in Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, announced an action film on his birthday yesterday.