It started with a missing name. Then another. By morning, Shah Rukh Khan, Alia Bhatt and Deepika Padukone were all gone from one list that nobody knew they cared about.
Image Source: Instagram
Karan Johar has unfollowed almost every Bollywood celebrity on Instagram. Fans noticed the development on May 28, 2026. And as the internet does, this quickly became trending topic across social media platforms.
Many began questioning whether there was any fallout behind the scenes or if it was a personal decision.
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To verify the situation, it was also checked whether unfollow activity was real or temporary glitch. A review of his account confirmed that several names were indeed missing from his following list, which added to the growing curiosity online.
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Karan unfollowed Shah Rukh Khan, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Deepika Padukone, Sidharth Malhotra, Vicky Kaushal, Katrina Kaif and others.
He also unfollowed his “Student Of The Year” proteges Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Malhotra, and Alia Bhatt.
Kartik Aaryan, who will be leading Karan Johar’s upcoming production “Naagzilla”, also did not make the cut.
Among the names no longer appearing on Johar’s following list were Shah Rukh Khan, Ananya Panday, Kartik Aaryan and designer Manish Malhotra, all of whom have shared close professional or personal ties with him over the years.
Interestingly, despite unfollowing several industry names, Johar is still reportedly following Priyanka Chopra Jonas, something fans quickly pointed out online given the filmmaker’s historically complicated equation with the actress.
The fact that he was still following Priyanka Chopra Jonas further fueled speculation among fans about selective unfollowing.
The updated list of people Karan is following on Instagram further includes Dharma CEO Apoorva Mehta and business partner Adar Poonawalla.
As of Thursday night, the filmmaker is following 74 accounts on Instagram and has over 17.5 million followers on the platform.
The news spread rapidly across Reddit and X (formerly Twitter). This became a topic of discussion on Reddit, where a post titled “Karan has unfollowed SRK and family, Deepika, Katrina, Vicky, Alia, Shanaya, Ananya, Sara, and almost all Bollywood celebs on Instagram” gained significant traction.
Some users called it an “Instagram cleanse,” while others joked that Bollywood’s biggest group chat may have quietly exploded behind the scenes.
Karan Johar addressed the buzz around him on Thursday night via an Instagram story. He clarified that his mass unfollowing spree is simply part of a “digital detox” and not something worth making headlines over.
Johar shared a note on Instagram saying the move had nothing to do with any problems with people from the film industry. He wrote: “It’s a DIGITAL DETOX!!!! Am unfollowing everyone to reduce my time and energy spent on the gram!!! This can’t be national news for god’s sake. Please clickbait something else! This is irrelevant!”
On the work front, Karan Johar’s latest production, ‘Chand Mera Dil’, starring Ananya Panday and Lakshya, released on May 22, 2026. Kartik Aaryan will be leading Karan Johar’s upcoming production ‘Naagzilla’.
Neither film nor any professional dispute has been linked by Johar or any confirmed source to the unfollowing activity.
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